Aishiteru
by RavenTears
Summary: Relena's secret has been well guarded for the past four years, but a terrorist's threat forces her to rely once again on the former gundam pilots. But what are the terrorists' true objectives? Are the gundam pilots unknowingly playing into their hands?
1. Prologue

Aishiteru__

_Prologue_

Hope

2:41 AM Local Time, Vice Foreign Minister's Compound, September 5th, A.C. 197 

She panted as though she had never filled her lungs before, gasping for precious air, as the excruciation ebbed to a dull, throbbing ache. She fought her way through the pain induced haze, willing her lucidity, and from somewhere far away, she felt a gentle hand pass a cloth over her brow and push the perspiration from her face. She forced her eyes to focus, and she squinted at the doctors, as they smiled knowingly, and passed a bundle to the nurse beside her. She smiled weakly as she felt the soft fabric of the yellow receiving blanket brush her nose while its inhabitant kicked defiantly. Where she got the strength to lift her arms, she did not know, but as she raised them wearily, the kind-faced and gentle-handed nurse leaned down and lowered the writhing cluster of blankets into her exhausted embrace. Relena pulled the tiny baby girl as close to herself as possible and with shaking hands, pushed the folds of the yellow cloth back to gaze upon the child. She took in a sharp gasp and smiled as the infant's face was revealed, reddened from crying. She felt the hot tears streaming down her cheeks and her body shook with checked sobs. 

But all her movements, no matter how subtle, ceased the moment the baby girl opened her eyes. Beautiful violet eyes, that shone despite their infantile haze with an intensity that foretold, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the paternity of this, the youngest Peacecraft. 

When she looked into those pure, innocent, and untainted eyes, all the agony of her labor melted away into a distant memory. She could never have known her own capacity to love another human being, until she had given birth to this child. There were no words to describe what she felt looking into those eyes; she now knew why there were so many hundreds of languages in this Earth Sphere -- they were all searching for a way to voice these feelings that swam in her head and heart. But all these languages fell pitifully short of their intended purpose. Love? That word was reproachfully inadequate. All the races and languages in the universe could not come up with a way to express these purely human emotions. 

She brushed the platinum peachfuzz with her fingertips and bent down to kiss her daughter on the forehead before she looked to the nurse standing at her bedside, beaming at the new mother and child. 

The older woman said in a voice as smooth as molasses, "Have you a name for your daughter?"

"Yes," Relena said in a hoarse whisper. "Hope Nadeshiko Peacecraft." The woman merely nodded and left the makeshift delivery room to fill out the necessary paperwork. She returned her attention to Hope, and lent her pinky to the infant to wrap her miniature fingers around. Relena couldn't stifle a giggle as the child held onto her fiercely with surprising strength, and hereditary stubbornness. 

Before today, she had never realized how empty she had felt. But this small person had filled her heart, and she could now see in retrospect how truly alone and hollow she had been. 

And she lay there in the bed, cradling her newborn baby girl, and drifted into a heavy, dreamless sleep.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	2. It Begins

Aishiteru__

_Chapter One_

It Begins. . . .

10:20 AM Local Time, Friday, December 13th, Preventer Headquarters Building, New London, AC 201

A little girl of about four years old with unruly platinum blonde hair sat in the corner with her crayons and watched her Mommy and the Lady Une. They were talking about boring stuff again, and that usually meant that Mommy would have to go away soon. That had been her suspicion from the start when Mommy had told her that she was taking her to the Preventer Headquarters with her this morning. Hope hated it when Mommy went away. She would have to pack up a suitcase and go stay with her grandmother, who would spend the entire time she was there talking about the world during the war, and how it had ruined Mommy's life. Hope never cared much for that type of conversation. The war ended years ago, and if telling stories didn't change anything, what was the point of worrying over how everything was so terrible for Mommy? Not to mention, she severely doubted that it had been as hard on Mommy as Grandma had made it out to be. Mommy didn't seem too "ruined" in Hope's eyes. As a matter of fact she seemed quite healthy right now, arguing with the Lady.

Presently, Hope sighed and put down the picture she had been drawing of her old teddy bear with the big red ribbon around its neck and decided to explore the big house her mother had brought her to. She looked up again at her mother and the Lady Une to see if they were paying attention. Of course, they weren't. They were bickering over something about a Peace Summit Meeting on the Moon. Trying to understand the big words made her head go spinny, so she crawled along the perimeter of the room, careful not to let a board creak, and slipped past the heavy metal door that had been left ajar. 

Once she was out of earshot, she stood and looked both ways down the corridor. She knew from which end she and Mommy had come, so she turned in that direction and walked silently down the carpeted hall. If she remembered correctly (and she always did), they were on the third floor, which meant she would have to go down four flights of stairs to get to the mess hall, below the main entrance. She had smelled French-fried potatoes from below her in the stairwell when they had come in earlier, and now she wanted to see if she could "cute" the cook into giving her some for free. 

At the end of the corridor, she saw an Asian man staring intently at the documents on his clipboard and mumbling about "the iniquity of paperwork" come out of a doorway, and caught a glimpse of the stairway behind him, just where she remembered it to be. 

When the man absently turned and walked through an open door, slamming it behind him, she dashed to the door and pulled on the handle. To no avail. Why are all the doors here made of heavy steel, and weigh twenty kilos? This did not deter her, however; she just gritted her teeth and pulled harder. After several seconds of huffing, the door inched out of its frame just enough for her to get her small fingers around the edge and give it a good heave. The door swung open and she scrambled inside. 

The metal latch closed with a loud click that resonated in the empty stairwell, and Hope sat on the landing, panting as she waited for a few minutes to catch her breath before proceeding in her mission.

She walked to the edge of the stairs and looked down. The stairs seemed to loop around the shaft forever, making her dizzy, and she gripped the rail firmly. Hope averted her eyes and focused on the step immediately ahead of her and began placing one foot in front of the other, inching her way down. About two landings down, the scent of food cooking and the sounds of people talking wafted up to her nose and ears, steeling her resolve. She hurried her pace and in no time at all she had found the fourth landing she had been looking for. Thankfully, the door was wedged open; she didn't want to repeat the effort it had taken her to open the other door. 

As she walked through the doorway she shielded her eyes against the room so bright in comparison to the dimly lit stairwell. Her eyes quickly adjusted and she scanned the room for any familiar faces. She didn't see any, which didn't surprise her since her mother hardly ever took her out anywhere where she could meet people. The only people she knew outside of her family and the house servants were the Lady Une and her doctor, Dr. Sally. That made her wonder why she had even bothered to scan the room, a thought which she quickly dismissed for lack of relevancy to her present situation. 

She walked along the edge of the large mess hall, catching the attention of only a few of the Preventer officers, who would pause to point her out to their table mates. While she was walking, one man caught her attention and held it. He seemed very friendly by the way he was standing in the corner talking with a huge smile on his face to a girl with very dark hair, occasionally laughing loud enough that she could hear it on the other side of the room, despite the din. But that wasn't what seemed so peculiar about him ... no, it was definitely the chestnut braid that reached past his knees that had snagged her attention.

She had no idea how that girl he was with could keep from pulling on that wonderful meter-and-a-half long braid! It was just hanging down his back, calling to her from across the room. She couldn't make herself look away! She just _had_ to give it a tug! She yelled at herself mentally the entire time she walked across the room, weaving in and out of legs, eyes intently focused on her prize. Before she realized what was happening, she was standing behind him with her arm outstretched. She put her other arm out to pull the right back, but somehow they both wrapped around the braid and-

"Yowch! What in the--?" Duo spun around looking for the assailant to his braid. Everyone who knew him also knew that only _Hilde_ was allowed to pull his braid. Under penalty of death. 

When he turned and saw no one, he was almost just as shocked as when he heard a short gasp and looked down into intense violet eyes that seemed to see through you to the soul. 

The small girl with his death-defying friend's gaze quickly bowed her head, her bangs falling to shield her eyes, and stuttered, "S-sorry," before dashing off through the crowd. Hilde gripped his shoulder, jarring him out of his stupor.

"Duo, who was that girl?"

"I dunno ... but I mean to find out," and with that, he began pushing through the crowd, in pursuit of the child. He caught a glimpse of a streak of blonde bolting through the open door to the stairwell and forced his way through the crowd to the afore mentioned doorway. When his eyes adjusted to the darker lighting, he saw the child a flight above him, running up the stairs two at a time -- quite a feat for someone her size. He jogged after her, catching up on the fourth landing. 

He saw her panting and pushing fiercely at the heavy door, apparently unable to make it budge. When she saw him coming up behind her, she backed away, feeling the wall with her hands. She eventually backed herself into a corner, where she crouched down, pulling her knees in for protection, and glaring at him defiantly. Duo flinched under her glare. The eyes were exactly the same, with the exception of hue. Watching her there, infringing on the copyrights of the patented Heero-Yuy-death-glare, was the proverbial automaton shouting "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" while waving its robotic arms madly inside his cranium.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down, Shorty! I'm not gonna hurt you," he said, trying to calm down, himself. He knelt to her eye level, flinching again as she continued to glare. "Well, that's a good 6.5 on the 'creep-factor' scale," Duo muttered under his breath, before sighing and continuing with, "What's your name, little one?" 

The girl hesitated, then her eyes softened (much to Duo's relief) and replied, almost inaudibly, "Hope."

"Hope what?" he pressed. She drew back again, and he tried another question, "Where are your parents?" She remained silent, but Duo persisted, "I need to know where they are if I'm gonna bring you back."

"But I'll get in trouble...."

"Does that mean your parents don't know where you went?" She paused, apparently considering her options, and then nodded. "Then I really hafta take you back. Your mommy and daddy are probably turning this place upside down looking for you. Now where are your parents?"

"Mommy was talking to the Lady down there," she pointed at the door, indicating the offices on the other side.

"The lady? Oh, you mean Lady Une?" She nodded. This was getting more and more incriminating, and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear what he was about to find out. This kid shows up out of nowhere at the Preventer Headquarters looking frighteningly like Mr. Perfect soldier, Heero Yuy, and tells him that her mother is somewhat close to Lady Une. Oh, man -- and this had started out as such a _good day,_ too! He had one last Hope ... "What's your mommy's name?" She looked at him blankly.

"Mommy."

"Your mommy's name is _Mommy?_" She nodded. Duo groaned. He let out an exasperated sigh and took her hand, practically lifting her off the ground when he stood, and opened the door. 

*

"How could I have let this happen!? What kind of mother am I, that I've lost my _four year old daughter!_ I'm not fit to parent!"

"Calm down, she couldn't have gotten far."

"You don't know my daughter!_ She broke the lock on her play pen when she was 18 months old!_"

*

Duo groaned. Again. He led the child down the hall to where the shouts in familiar voices emanated, all the while steeling himself to the fact that he would have to face Relena. In his twisted mind, he thought of an ... original ... way of making his entrance and smirked to himself, imagining the look on Rel's face when he waltzed in with Hope. Duo swaggered the rest of the way down the corridor, coming to a stop in front of Lady Une's main office and leaned against the doorjamb, still holding the girls hand while she studied her shoelaces. Duo cleared his throat.

"Though it was not assigned to me as a mission objective, I nonetheless took it upon myself to intercept a suspicious personage for questioning on your behalf. I discovered her skulking around the base, possibly collecting information for use against the Preventer organization. I believe you will be most interested in what we've uncovered thus far."

Relena spun around and in a blink of an eye had swooped up her daughter, apparently oblivious to Duo. She proceeded to assail the child with questions.

"Where on Earth have you been? You know better than to run off by yourself! Do you know what you've put me through? I was scared to death! Don't you _ever _do that to me again, missy! You are in BIG trouble!" 

"Hey, hey, easy Rel! She was on Preventer property the whole time; it's like a giant playpen."

"Oh, well that's reassuring."

"Preventer Hades, may I remind you who signs your check?"

"Look, I just made a delivery. If my services here are unappreciated, next time I'll just sit back and let the situation progress naturally."

"Effectively defeating the purposes of a _Preventer_."

"Well what was I supposed to do? Wait for her outside your doorway? I would have, if someone hadn't conveniently forgotten to inform me of her _existence_. Anyway, kids'll be kids, and Heero's kid is bound to be a little ... adventurous. Call me when she starts blowing up her doll houses or something. " 

Duo dejectedly turned to leave, when Relena called out, "Duo, wait!" Duo turned around, half expecting her to make him sign a gag order or something. "Thank you for bringing her back. I owe you." Duo was surprised out of sulking. 

He made a quick recovery, however, and came back with, "Sure, no problem."

"Where was she, anyway?"

"The cafeteria," Duo smirked.

"The _cafeteria?!_"

"Might never have seen her, among all those Preventer jackets, if she hadn't pulled my braid," Duo added. Hope now seemed intensely fascinated by the threading on her mother's lapel. Relena turned to face her daughter.

"Did you pull Duo's braid?" she asked, aghast. Hope, never meeting her mother's gaze, merely nodded. "Did you apologize?" Hope now seemed very offended and was adamant in making sure that her mother knew that she had, in fact, apologized for her actions.

"I most certenlly did!" she said, tripping over "certainly."

"Properly?" Relena added. Hope seemed less forthcoming. "I'll bet you didn't even introduce yourself. Has all my work been for nothing?"

Hope gave an exaggerated sigh and wriggled down from her mother's hip, first tugging on the leg of her bib overalls in an attempt to curtsey and then quickly amending it to a curt bow. 

"My name is Hope Nadeshiko Darlian Peacecraft," she said monotonously, extending her right hand, "I am pleased to make your appendage."

"Well, she certainly has her father's verbal flair, doesn't she?" He grimaced playfully at the recollection of Heero's talents regarding the upkeep of his appendages. His grimace metamorphosized into a charming smile as he returned the bow and took the offered hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss Peacecraft," he said smoothly. "I am called Duo Maxwell; I may run and hide, but I will never tell a lie. Especially not to pretty young ladies, such as yourself and your youthful mother." She blushed and again studied her shoelaces as he gently pecked her small knuckles.

"Now Duo, don't you have a wife wandering around this compound?" Lady Une chided.

"Ah, yes. And I must remain forever faithful to my beloved. Therefore, I fear I must leave your presence, my ladies, lest I find myself beyond deliverance from the temptation of your feminine wiles. And so I bid you farewell, my seductive seraphs, my singing sirens, my -"

"Duo..."

"Adieu, adieu! Auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, and gesundheit!" And with that, Duo gave a second, exaggerated, bow - his nose almost touching his toes, and his braid falling over his head to coil on the floor. He rose from the bow quickly, so that his braid flipped back over to slap his backside, eliciting a giggle from Hope, and then he was gone - disappearing down the hall.

*

"Well, that's one more person to add to the list," Relena said with a sigh.

"And we know he will tell Hilde," Lady Une added. "So that's two, really."

"I'm glad. That's two more people I don't have to keep it from." Relena smiled reassuringly at Lady Une. Meanwhile, about a meter lower, Hope was puzzled about this new friend of hers.

"Mommy?" Relena turned her attention back to Hope.

"Yes, Nadey?"

"How does Duo know my daddy?" Relena smiled and prepared to weave a not-quite-lie for her daughter about how Duo and Daddy were allies during the fight for peace, and had battled side by side to protect the known universe.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	3. Airplane

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Two_

"Airplane!"

Friday, December 13th, Preventer Headquarters Building, New London, AC 201

Duo bounded out of the stairwell and in a few long strides, had found Hilde's side once more. He was practically bubbling over with this new tidbit of information he couldn't wait to wave past Hilde's nose. Of course Hilde, with her innate sense of gossip, knew that Duo had something worthwhile.

"Well, Duo? What did you find out about that girl?" Duo merely chuckled and took in a deep breath, to fuel his hot air.

"Imagine if you will, a world not bound by the laws of reality, a world in which science fact and science fiction are one in the same, a world-"

"Duo, get to the point." 

His face fixed in a manic grin and he fairly danced from foot to foot as he sing-songed at her, "I know something you don't know!"

"Duo!"

"It's multiplied!"

"What?!" She was getting pretty damn irritated.

"What has two blue eyes, and neither of them are ever black; a computer chip in it's brain, and is harder to kill than a cockroach?"

"Cher?"

"Brown eyes, hun. And he's not animatronic." he paused and speculated his last comment. "We don't think. At least, not so much any more."

"Then you mean Heero." She frowned, staring at him questioningly before the connection formed in her thoughts. "You ... mean Heero? Multiplied...?" She grabbed him by his lapels and shook him jarringly, either unaware or uncaring of the stares they were attracting. "What do you know?! Is it another weapons project? Someone's trying to create another perfect soldier?! You-" His hands caught her shoulders, pushing her gently back off of her tiptoes. 

"Settle, Tonto - you're scaring the natives. I don't mean recreated, I mean _pro_created_._" His grin widened as she paled visibly. "And guess who the lucky egg donor was...." The cafeteria was startled by a resounding slap ringing though the air. 

"Duo Mervin Maxwell, if you're implying what I think you're implying-"

Warning. Warning. Growling Hilde. Abort joke mode. He glanced around the rest of the room before grabbing her by the arm, interrupting her and whispering in her ear, "Let's take this somewhere more private; I can give you the details I've dredged up so far. I think you'll be interested." He nodded to an Asian man watching from nearby as he dragged Hilde out the door. "Wuffie, cover me the first half of the shift wouldjya? I'll be back in a flash, I swear." He was met by a disdainful snort. 

"Anything you say ... Mervin." Duo shot a glare over his shoulder.

"Thanks, _Chang_."

*

"I can't believe it."

"That's the fifth time you've said that."

"Well, I just _can't_ ... how is it possible? She must have been expecting at the same time we were, and no one ever found out? Why wouldn't she tell you?" 

"Why should she have? Making public knowledge of her status as an unwed teenaged mother wouldn't have helped her reputation any, and hurt her politically. Besides, it would only make the kid an easy target. How would you like it if we had to scan for snipers every time Ezra went outside to play?"

"I can understand that part, but obviously _some_ people know. Why wouldn't she trust _us?_"

"We know her, but we aren't exactly her closest friends. It's easier to keep a secret, the fewer people who know about it. I mean, Hell - the only time I've even been to her estate is in uniform, waiting for someone to throw a bomb. As far as I can tell, Sally probably knows since she had to be the logical choice for all that pre-natal stuff. She's probably the kid's pediatrician. That means Wu Fei probably knows too. Une knows, obviously. Quatre's on intimate enough terms with Rel that he probably knows, so that clues in Trowa by default. The sixty-four thousand dollar question is whether Heero knows."

"So then in theory, you're the only pilot she didn't tell."

"Are you _trying_ to make me feel dejected? Nah, she wouldn't have told Wuffers or Trowa outright, they just happen to have the right connections. If you were one of her maids or something, I'd know too. At least, she didn't go out of her way to keep me from getting out with the information, so I figure she trusts us, she just didn't go out of her way to tell us, either."

"I can't believe it."

"Six. The poor kid is probably bored out of her head around here though; it's no wonder she was out here playing 'Mission: Impossible'. I was thinking, she's still stuck up there with all the legal mumbo-jumbo, what do you say we pull Ezra out of the daycare zone and send him up?"

"You want to send a four-year-old Maxwell into Lady Une's office? A twenty-one year old Maxwell does enough damage. Duo, we've discussed this before. The war is over; there is no need for you to endanger your life. I'm almost finished with your last report, so as soon as I send it up to Mission Directives, I'll swing by and see if Relena minds me taking her to the park with Ezra."

"Roger that. We'll rendezvous at 1300 hours at Wacdonald's for mess."

"Operation: Playdate confirmed, agent Hades."

"Move out, agent Persephone." They exchanged a mock salute before marching off towards their respective destinations.

*

One Hour Later, 12 PM, Lady Une's Office

Hilde knocked tentatively at the door to the Head of the Preventers office. She still couldn't believe that for five years of friendship, Relena had kept something so major as _her child_ secret. Oh, Gods! Hilde just realized something she forgot.... What was she supposed to say!? She'd sound like an idiot, just coming up because of something Duo had told her. She hadn't seen Relena for over a year, with the exception of phone conversations, and here she was just about to waltz in and ask if her newly discovered daughter would like to go out to the park and lunch with her and Ezra! She was startled out of her reverie by the door swinging open and Lady Une's face filling her vision. 

"Agent Persephone?"

"Uh, I'm sorry to disturb you, ma'am."

"No, it's quite all right. What brings you to my office?"

"Um, well, you see ... Duo--"

"Ah. I think this would be better to discuss inside," she moved aside and gestured for her to enter.

"Of course, ma'am," Hilde nodded and entered, walking straight into Relena's unabashed gaze. Hilde almost jumped, she was so startled to see her when the room had appeared empty just two second ago.

"So you know?" Relena asked. It was more of a statement really, but Relena was too polite to assume anything. Hilde simply nodded in response. "We didn't think Duo would be able to keep it from you for five minutes. I'm surprised you didn't come up an hour ago." Hilde giggled nervously at the comment.

"I would have, but I had paperwork to finish up."

"Ah, at least one of you has the presence of mind to remember your job once in a while. Your husband does excellent work in the field, but his attention to procedure leaves something to be desired."

"He's just not a desk-job sort of person; that's why they work so well together, Lady." Hilde smiled gratefully as Relena spoke up in Duo's defense, even if she was getting stuck as his "Gal Friday." Damn, she'd been hanging around Duo too long, picking up his slang. Relena turned her attention wearily back to Hilde, "I'm sure you have plenty of questions and accusations for me, and I'll be glad to stand your interrogation, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait. I'm needed A.S.A.P. at the Lunar Peace Conference Facility to organize an emergency Summit Meeting in regards to the recent terrorist attacks against former military leaders. So I have a nine hour flight and seven hours to make it in, once I make my own arrangements, prepare my speech, pack Hope off to my mother, convince her that I'll be home soon and she'll have fun, reassure the public as to our control over the situation, and give my secretary a pep talk to convince her that she can survive two weeks without me." She said in one breath, and then stood looking slightly dazed by the impossible list of duties she'd rattled off.

"Actually," Hilde cut in tentatively, "I was just coming up to see if you'd be interested in taking an active role in Operation: Playdate, but don't worry about it. I can see that this is obviously a bad time for-"

"This is one of the _better_ days I've had in the last two months."

"Well, I ... hey, Relena, you know if you really have your back to the wall right now, Duo and I wouldn't mind taking Hope while you're on the Moon. I mean, it would save you the trip out to your Mother's, and she might see it as more of an adventure than having to stay with her grandmother."

"I couldn't impose on you like that. Hope is a real handful, and you need to watch her 24/7."

"So we've come to find out. But it's really no problem. We've had lots of practice with Ezra," Hilde smiled. The smile spread to Relena as she mused over the many misadventures that had been relayed to her via her vidphone conversations with the Maxwell parents. "We'll be heading back to L2 tonight, so we can see you off at the spaceport before catching our own flight out. How does that sound?"

"What about Duo? You haven't exactly had time to talk this over with him."

"He'll love it! We both really want to get to know Hope, and this is the perfect opportunity, not to mention, we can relieve you of some stress. So what do you say?" Relena seemed too caught off guard to come up with a reasonable argument, so she simply caved.

"Sure, why not? I guess I'll tell her the good news." Relena turned and walked across the room to a side door to the right of Lady Une's desk. She opened it and poked her head in.

"OK, punishment time is over; you can come out." The girl walked out, her eyes downcast until she became aware of the extra presence in the room. She glanced up at her mother, apparently knowing what was expected of her. She walked across the room and stopped in front of the young woman she recognized from her brief glace in the cafeteria. Hilde was baffled. 

"Good afternoon. My name is Hope Nadeshiko Darlian Peacecraft. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." She looked to her mother for confirmation. Relena nodded to the apprehensive violet eyes.

"What a well mannered young lady! Maybe you'll rub off on Ezra if we're lucky! My name is Hilde Maxwell, Duo's wife, and the pleasure is all mine. How are you, this afternoon?"

"Fine, thank you," she said practicedly. 

"I have to go to the Moon tonight and-"

"No!" Hope exclaimed before her mother could finish. "I don't want you to go away again!" she ended, obviously upset.

"I'm very sorry, Hope, but this is unavoidable. You know about what's been going on. I need to try and fix this."

"Why can't someone else fix it? Why does everyone make you do _everything?_" Tears welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill, and wrenching Relena's heart. Nevertheless, she had to be firm or she would never leave for the Moon, and they really needed her this time. 

"Hilde has graciously offered to have you stay with them," she continued. "How would you like that? Your first trip off the Earth."

"Off the Earth?"

"Yes. Duo, Hilde, and their son Ezra live on the L2 colony. So how would you like that instead of going to stay with Grandma?"

"I would like that very much," she said quietly, knowing she had lost. 

*

Six Hours Later, 6:22 PM, Preventer Spaceport, New London HQ, Closed Launch.

"Sweetheart ... it's time to let go of Mommy now ... she has to get on the shuttle. Baby, you're cutting off Mommy's circulation. It's only for two weeks, you'll have lots of fun playing with Ezra." With much coaxing Relena pried the clinging child off of her leg and transferred her to Hilde's arms. After a barrage of kisses she turned to finally head for the rolling staircase waiting for her to ascend, only to be stopped by a resounding "Waaaaaaaait!" Relena turned back half alarmed and half exhausted to see Hope had wrestled her way free of Hilde's grasp and was staring up at her tearfully.

"You forgot Daddy's bear! I need Mister Snuffullufagus!"

Relena's face softened as she crouched for one final embrace, "Sweetie, he's packed up nice and safe in your bag, I made sure Pargon put him there especially. Okay? Duo and Hilde will call me for you as soon as you get there and you can tell me how nice it is."

"Okaaaaay..." Hope whimpered as she finally allowed herself to be led away to the shuttle that would take her to L2, exchanging the occasional glare in response to the Maxwell Child's stare. 

*

By lunchtime on the second day of the flight, conditions had improved between them only by virtue of Duo's intervention. Left alone, there was something of a communication gap dividing the fourteenth generation Peacecraft and the second generation Maxwell. 

When Hilde's fretting became intolerable Duo finally blurted, "At least he didn't shoot her twice!" Hilde looked at him as if he'd grown another head and he gave up the argument. _Relena_ would have laughed.

"Would it be better if he shot her once?" she questioned the empty space where Duo had been. Sighing, he made his way back to the cafeteria section where the two short people were _supposed_ to be eating cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Quietly. Neither the short people nor their meals were anywhere in sight.

An extensively trained soldier, Duo did not panic. Much. Before he could begin an exhaustive search for the fugitives, he was unwittingly alerted to their whereabouts by a crash, the sound of gushing water, and yelling. In that order. Two miniature spies came tearing out of the Men's Restroom, one in suspiciously pink overalls, and the other dripping wet. With the skill born of stealth operations combined with parenting, he managed to catch hold of both in one outstretched arm before they could make their escape.

"What. Did. You. Do." He wasn't sure he wanted to hear this. After a few moments of hoarse sputtering, Ezra met his face with impossibly wide eyes, as if he didn't believe what had happened himself.

"She didn't believe me 'bout urinals," he stated as if that explained everything.

"So you decided to show her; I can follow that much. What happened?"

"Well, someone was coming in and girls can't be in the boy's room, so we hid in a stall and were standing on the toilet ... and ..._ she_," he pointed accusingly, "wanted to see how someone could make while standing up so I helped her look over the door and ... it fell down."

"And you fell in," Duo finished in disbelief. 

Before he could say anything more, Ezra noted the "your-ass-is-grass" look in his eyes and piped up at the top of his lungs, "Help! Somebody help me!" In his surprise Duo let him slip out of his grasp and the wailing boy latched on to the nearest staring bystander, "Help! He beats me! I have scars all over! He'll tie me up in the backyard and hit me with a chain again! You won't let him hurt me, will you mister?!"

Hope looked on in pure admiration.

"I do not beat my son! Ezra Mikhail Maxwell, I'm going to kill you! That's a figure of speech! What are you looking at!? Just wait until I tell your mother!"

An hour, several explanations, and a trip to the brig later, Hilde escorted her seething husband back to their seats in the main compartment, where two apparent angels were quietly playing "Go-Fish."

"Daddy, what's 'battered child syndrome?'" Hilde quickly hushed him.

"When we get home, you are going to be in trouble for a long, long time," Duo said frighteningly calmly.

"A lot of trouble...?"

"Do you remember the time you hot-wired your teacher's car and you couldn't help in the scrapyard for a month?"

"Yes...."

"More trouble than that."

"Oh...."

"Post-traumatic stress -- he was in the war," Hilde whispered to the lady sitting next to them.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	4. Separated

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Three_

Separated

7 Hours Later, December 15th, 7:00 PM Local Time, Winner Resource Satellite SE-IV, Docking Bay and Refueling Station.

With a mute growl, Wu Fei glanced at his watch. Again. Their shuttle was due in an hour ago, and despite lack of evidence and general impracticality, he was inclined to suspect that the Maxwells were somehow to blame for the delay. The docking procedures were taking an ungodly amount of time, and it occurred to him briefly to wish Duo would simply take over the cockpit and lend some efficiency to the damned ineptitude of civilian pilots. When passengers finally began leaking through the boarding gates, he stood up and passed through the security checkpoint to meet them as soon as they emerged. That, it turned out, was a mistake. The first Maxwell to clear the gate, and subsequently spot him, bolted towards him in a blur and vaulted himself at his chest, sending the unprepared Preventer sprawling.

"Uncle Wuffie!"

When Duo and Hilde appeared a few moments later, Wu Fei was back up and in full chastisement mode, with an unfortunate Ezra held by one shoulder.

"That's Wu Fei," Duo informed the little girl curiously watching from behind his leg, "he's one of Ezra's uncles. Quatre and Trowa just spoil him, but Wuffers here thinks it's his sacred duty to oversee and correct his development. In other words, stamp out anything that reminds him of me."

"I've heard of him," Hope offered, "he's the arrogant, pig-headed misogynist, right?"

"I see Sally _is_ your doctor."

"How did you know that? Is she your doctor too?"

"Yes, yes she is. And Azreal's over there." He motioned over at Ezra, and then sighed lightly as Hope looked up at him blankly.

"I thought his name was Ezra."

"Never mind. Let's just go see what Wu wants from us." Duo walked over to Wu Fei, Hilde and Hope in tow.

"So, Wu-wu, what's up? As much as I would like to believe that you came to greet us here at this lowly way-station out of the sincere desire to see your adoring nephew, I have a peculiar feeling that you have ulterior motives." Wu Fei looked up from his lecture with a mask of professionalism that told Duo this was part of a mission. Before responding, he looked down to Hope with a brow quirked.

"Is that her?"

"If by 'her' you mean our mutual friend, who shall remain nameless's daughter, then yes, it is."

"Follow me," he said monotonously to Duo before turning on his heel, "Something has come up." Duo stared at his back for a few seconds, bewildered, and then followed, leaving Hilde and the two children at the security checkpoint.

*

Duo followed Wu Fei into an empty conference room and sat down at one of the chairs, waiting for him to explain. Before Wu Fei could say anything, though, the chair at the head of the table spun around to face them with a familiar blonde Arabian as its occupant.

"Q! What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm on my way to the Moon, but I've stopped here to assist Wu Fei in delivering a mission."

"Um ... I'm getting a bad feeling about this ..." Duo said apprehensively. "What's going on? Has something happened to Relena?"

"No, nothing. Not yet, anyway," Quatre said, not knowing his aquamarine eyes showed all of his fears to anyone with sense enough to look.

"Another threat on her life?"

"Not hers -- Hope's"

"Hope?! But I thought no one knew about her?"

"So did we. Lady Une's searching for the leak on her end, while we cover our end," Wu Fei interjected.

"And what exactly _is_ 'our end?'" Duo asked tentatively.

"I think it would be better to start from the beginning." Quatre inhaled deeply and slipped into Preventer mode, reminding Duo, somewhat unnervingly, of when he had taken command of the five Gundam pilots during the Eve Wars. 

"On the second day of talks at the Lunar Peace Summit, Relena received an e-mail from the very terrorists that gave need for the Summit. A representative of the terrorist organization has issued a threat to take the life of my goddaughter if the Summit participants do not concede to retry the major military leaders of the Eve Wars and have them executed for their war crimes. 

"I'm on my way to the Moon, officially as a close personal friend of Relena and a fellow peace advocate, and undercover as Preventer Sandstorm of the Vice Foreign Minister's personal bodyguard detail. Preventers Rain and Snow have been there with her since her arrival, by the request of Lady Une, and the three of us should be able to effectively diffuse any attacks or attempts on her life while the Summit continues. You and Preventer Smoke have been assigned to transport Hope to the nearest Preventer base, on MO-II where she can be safely monitored. Perseph- I mean, Hilde and Ezra will continue on to L2 as if nothing has happened." he finished, slipping back into everybody-loves-Quatre mode. "That's it in a nutshell, as you might say," he said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Well then, what are we wasting our time around here for? Wu Fei and I will head back, I'll explain things to Hilde, and we can get going."

"I'm glad that, for once, you aren't hesitating, Maxwell," Wu Fei said as he reached to open the door leading back to the main spaceport.

"Good luck," Quatre called after them. 

Duo turned with his trademark grin on his face and said, "No need. What could possibly go wrong? After all, she's just one kid."

"Still, lets not take unnecessary risks, lest we find ourselves regretting it down the line," Quatre said as the two Preventers left, even though he knew they could not hear him.

*

Duo stood by the gate as Hilde and Ezra prepared to re-board their flight and finish the last leg of the trip to L2. Duo kissed his wife and gave his son a hug before they disappeared down the corridor that would take them to the shuttle. Wu Fei had gone off to get Hope something to drink while they waited for their shuttle to come in, and Hope herself was waiting in one of the many chairs outside the boarding gate, watching the crowds milling past. 

Hope sat quietly, engaged in a guessing game she had invented. She studied each person walking past her chair and tried to determine where they were from or going, based on what they were wearing, what they looked like, or how they talked. A tall woman with rectangle glasses who looked so thin, you could thread a needle with her, bustled her way through the crowd, her arms laden heavily with papers and envelopes. A thick manilla envelope slid off the top of the pile onto the tiled floor in front of Hope, where the crowd of travelers and spaceport officials proceeded to walk all over it. Hope hopped off her chair and wrestled the envelope out from underneath a mean looking man's polished dress shoe, and wove between the legs to the set of beige flats five meters in front of her. She caught up with the thin lady and tugged on the skirt of her camel colored suit. When she looked down at the child, Hope handed her the envelope and said, "Excuse me, ma'am, but you dropped this." Her stern face cracked into a smile as she took the envelope from her small hands and thanked Hope before melting back into the flood of people. Hope turned to go back to her chair, only to find that it had disappeared into the thousands of legs visible from her altitude. "Uh-oh..." she said quietly, realizing her grave error.

*

Several meters away, two Preventers were saying that same thing ... more or less.

*

Hope looked around to try and reorient herself, in futility. She then forced her way through the crowd to the safety of the wall and discovered an air locked door before quickly slipping through it. Hope found herself in repair hangar surrounded by small personal space craft. She walked along the wall to explore the nearest shuttle which conveniently enough, had a major panel removed so that the guts were exposed for the maintenance crew. She jumped in the low gravity to the parapet twenty feet above her, landing with a quiet "tap" on the deserted walkway. She was in the middle of trying to count the multi colored wires when she started wondering why the place was so empty. The resounding wail of the warning system signaling that the hangar was about to be exposed to the vacuum of space answered her question. Hope frantically tried to open the door to the shuttle, but it had an electronic lock on it. She closed her eyes and pressed random keys on the panel, praying it would open. Hope heard the hiss of the pressure equalizing as the door slid open. She didn't have time to be amazed at her luck, so instead she just slipped in and hit the panel on the inside wall of the craft to make the door close. When she heard the electronic lock beep its reactivation, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and allowed herself to sit on the floor and let the adrenaline ebb. 

After a few minutes, she heard the computer voice give the all clear and turned her attention to getting out and finding her way back to Duo. She looked at the panel she'd used to close the door and pressed it again. Nothing happened. Upon further inspection she realized she needed to re-enter the password she had used to get in, in order to get out. What kind of person would lock people _out of _and _inside_ his shuttle?

"Oh well," she thought out loud, "I did it once, I can do it again," And with that, she began to press random keys again. 

After several minutes of this, and no success, an external activity monitor started beeping. Hope quickly looked around for a place to hide. She opened the door to a small cabin that had been altered into a makeshift sleeping quarters and hid under the cot.

*

Heero tapped the security code into the keypad, only half paying attention, as he went over the list of things to repair in his head. He knew something was wrong as soon as he walked into the shuttle. 

The cockpit pressure had lowered, he realized. Which meant that someone had entered the ship before he had and let the pressure equalize. He drew his unloaded gun and began to investigate. He'd stopped bothering to load the gun years ago, since on most of his missions, it was easier and quieter to knock the enemy unconscious. Most people gave up when they found themselves staring down the barrel, if it even came to that. Not to mention, he hadn't killed anyone since the failed coup in 197, and he was rather inclined to keep it that way. 

But right now, the intruder had the advantage, and he would take any opportunities to gain the upper hand, even if it was through playing off their fear of death. He heard the sound of breathing from the cabin and walked silently to stand beside the doorway. After counting to three, he pressed the keypad and spun to fill the now open doorframe, training his gun on the sound of the breathing. Whoever it was, they were hiding under the cot.

"I know where you are, and I am prepared to kill you," he said in his cool monotone. "Come out and keep your hands where I can see them." The first thing he saw was the pink overalls, then a mop of blonde hair, and finally bright, unafraid violet eyes. That was only the third person to ever look down his gun without any fear of him. And he wasn't sure if Trowa should count or not. Hell, even Duo would start to waver if you held your ground long enough. A rare look of shock flashed across his face for the first time in years before he regained his composure, and put the gun back in its holster.

"What's your name?" she inquired, unabashed.

"What's yours."

"I asked you first."

"I am the adult, you are a child. Answer me."

"But you want to know what I know so I have the 'vantage."

"_Ad_vantage." He continued to stare unwaveringly at her with mounting irritation. She, in turn, kept staring right back, though her lips pursed in something resembling a pout. "Vantage has a completely different definition. Now who are you and how did you get in here."

"Would you like to borrow my comb? I have the whole Pretty-Princess vanity set."

"Excuse me?"

"Your hair's all mussy. You need to comb it. Mommy says presentation is ninety percents of impressions."

"_First_ impressions." Why did he know that?

"Yeah, that. Doesn't your mommy comb your hair?" She held out the offered bit of plastic innocently. It was pink. Very pink. With rhinestones.

"Excuse me?"

"I can do it for you if you like, but you'll have to bend down."

"I do not need my hair combed. I need to know who you are so I can return you to the proper coordinates your identity designates."

"What?"

"You need to go home. Tell me your name."

"I _still_ asked you first." She frowned indignantly as she repocketed the snubbed comb.

"My name is irrelevant. I have no identity, none that I care to share, with you or anyone else. If you do not tell me your name right now I will simply toss you out the airlock and let you find your own way home."

"Mommy'd be mad at you."

"Who is your Mommy."

"Who is yours?"

"I don't have one."

She looked stricken suddenly, staring up at him, "Ohhh ... is that why you're so mean?"

"I am not mean!" Why the Hell was he getting so irritated over this brat?

"You can borrow my Mommy if you'd like, she's real nice."

He sensed a crack in her defenses and changed tactics, "That would be nice, what's your Mommy's name?"

"What's yours?" This was becoming redundant. So what if he gave in to a little kid? It wasn't like there was anyone around to see the perfect soldier beaten by a rugrat. 

"You may address me as Duo Maxwell, then."

"You aren't Duo! Duo's hair is much neater looking. And really long. You're mean _and_ you're a liar." The glare she fixed him with was somehow startling and he narrowed his eyes at her. She knew Duo Maxwell? The odds of there being another Duo Maxwell in such propinquity with the tell-tale long hair were minimal to say the least. Well, now they were getting somewhere; her stealthy appearance on his ship was beginning to make more sense.

"You're Duo's daughter."

"I am?" She seemed shocked. Then thrilled. Not necessarily an affirmation. "That's great! I like him. Maybe he'll move in and stay when Mommy goes away so I don't have to see Grandma."

"Hn."

"Pardon me?" There was a touch of aristocracy in her tone. This further wavered his original deduction. He scrutinized her once more, noting the bright blonde hair, fair complexion, and painfully proper posture.

"Zechs'."

"God bless you." Heero frowned harder. Too polite. He studied her hair again. 

"Quatre's."

"Nope. But I know who that one is. Mommy says he's very nice, and he sent me a music box for Christmas. It plays Furleese."

"You mean Fur Elise." What was this sinking feeling developing below his throat? The answer was well within reach; in any other situation he would have latched onto it long before he had gotten so far matching wits with a four-year-old. His brain told him this was fear; denial. Hair like Zechs', friends with Duo, and presents from Quatre. His next words were barely more than a choked whisper. "Your mother is Relena Darlian."

"Uh-oh. . . ." He grabbed her by the arm almost roughly. 

"You don't belong on this ship, you're going back to your mother." He practically spat the last word.

"But she's on the Moon.... Can we find Duo instead? Or the Wu Fei...? _Pleeease_?" She seemed on the verge of tears. He found this disconcerting. He stopped and crouched, loosening his grip on her arm and pulling her around to face him with a sort of clumsy gentleness.

"Don't cry." This seemed ineffective as her chin quivered and the beginnings of a wail rose up threateningly from her throat. He was baffled, watching helplessly as her face grew red and her eyes welled up with tears. He had no experience with children. The closest thing to a child he had ever had to deal with was Duo. What would pacify Duo? "Would you like ice cream?" She blinked and stared at him, for the time being, shocked out of her tantrum. 

"Okay!" She grabbed his hand eagerly and he looked at it.

*

"Duo, this is your fault. You were supposed to be watching the child, not the woman in the miniskirt."

"Her _name_ is Hilde!"

"That is irrelevant to our present situation. We were entrusted with a precious cargo and your lack of professionalism has put our mission in jeopardy."

"For chrissakes, it's not a _mission _Wu Fei! It's a little kid! She's lost and probably scared out of her mind!"

"Well then _you_ should have gotten her the hot chocolate and let _me_ hang on to her. And considering her genetic makeup, I highly doubt she is so emotionally weak. Maxwell, where are you going!?"

"Think Wu! Where would a four year old with the single minded objectives of Heero Yuy go? I'm heading for the guy with the snack cart!"

Wu Fei watched him with a begrudging scowl, and then followed. He was rewarded for his cooperation by slamming into Duo's back when he stopped short in front of him.

"Dammit Maxwell! What the hell do you think you're doing?! Don't just stop in front of someone, give me a warning next time!" He paused in his rant as he noticed Duo's slack-jawed stare and lack of attention, then followed his gaze across the room. He sucked in his own breath as he saw what had shocked Duo. It was a scene he could never have prepared for. Their charge was seated calmly at the mobile confections counter, sharing an ice cream cone with one, Heero Yuy.

"Shit," he heard Duo hiss, "Rel's gonna kill us."

"Don't panic. We don't know for sure if her identity has been compromised."

"Why the hell else would Mr. I'm-going-to-kill-you be interacting with a kid?! Haven't you gotten it by now? Heero knows everything that comes within ten miles of him!"

"You're exaggerating and you're giving him too much credit. Heero is not infallible and he doesn't bother with useless information. Besides, she's as obstinate as her mother. She probably hasn't told him anything."

*

"So your birthday is September 5th."

"Uh huh, last year I got my vanity set. The Pretty-Princess one. Mommy says Grandma spoils me rotten, but the Lady says I'm too sweet to be rotten."

"And that was your fourth."

"I'm almost four-and-a-half now."

"No you aren't."

"Am so."

"No."

"Yuh-huh."

"There are twelve months in a year; six is half. There are only three between September and December."

"So?" It was definitely like talking to Duo. Except, she _stopped_ talking once in a while. He grunted. 

"What about your father?"

"He's gotta be lots older than four-and-a-half."

"Who is he?" he amended.

"You said he was Duo."

"Then you don't know?"

"I know Duo. . . ."

"September is nine months after January." Hope held out sticky fingers to count off in her head. 

"Yep, guess so. And Saturday is after Friday."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I like Saturday - Mommy stays home all day. Is it Friday yet?"

"It's Tuesday." He paused a moment and she held out the rather messy cone at him. Against his better judgement, he took an obliging lick. Best to maintain her trust until he had completed his interrogation. "What does your mommy tell you about your father."

"He was a white knight who fought valiantly for the good of all mankind," she recited from memory, "he took his mighty wingèd steed off to battle and saved the world, and he loves me very much even though he has to be away protecting the Earth Sphere so it's always safe forever and ever." She considered for a moment before adding thoughtfully, "And ever. The end. He gave me a teddy bear, but it's still in my suitcase. His name is Mister Snuffullufagus. My bear, not my daddy."

He found himself momentarily paralyzed by the word 'daddy' coming out of her mouth, and he didn't know why. This - whatever "this" was - shouldn't be affecting him so much. This was not good. Not good at all. Not in light of the information he'd collected from her. He was startled from his reverie by a tug at his jacket which brought his attention to the sticky hand smearing chocolate on him urgently.

"Mister Not-Duo?"

"What is it."

"I hafta go potty."

"Hn." They regarded each other suspiciously for a long moment. "You can do that by yourself, can't you."

"I'm not a baby."

"Good." They continued to regard each other in silence as Heero concluded what was expected of him. He stood up and nodded at her. "This way." She discarded the remnants of her ice cream and hopped down to follow him, thrusting her sticky hand into his.

"Are we going now?"

He realized he was staring at her, not moving. He grunted again, tearing his attention away from the hand grasping so trustingly at his own and moving at a pace that kept her hopping alongside him. Somewhere behind them Duo tapped Wu Fei's arm and proceeded to tail the pair.

"You can't call me Mr. Not-Duo."

"Mommy says I should always say mister unless its someone I already know. Or a girl," she added after thinking about it.

"Well, you know me now."

"Okay, Not-Duo."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Call me..." he trailed off in a moment of rare indecision. He couldn't give her the name he'd come to consider his own, even if she was Relena's daughter. Especially if she was Relena's daughter. She would doubtless relay the tidbit of information freely. He wouldn't give up the upper hand on this situation so easily. He was sure that Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum behind them wouldn't be overly forthcoming in their obvious blunder, giving him a satisfactory window of opportunity to act before she could build up her defenses. "Otousan," he finished firmly.

"Is that your name? It sounds funny. Okay, Otousan."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	5. Extra! Extra!

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Four_

Extra! Extra!

8:07 PM Local Time, Winner Resource Satellite SE-IV, Docking Bay and Refueling Station.

"Well? He's been standing there for ten minutes. Isn't he going to check on her?"

"I doubt even Heero Yuy would venture into the Women's Restroom without a specific mission objective."

"Do _you_ have a four-year-old? _I_ have a four-year-old. When you have a four-year-old, _everything_ is a specific mission objective. Besides, she has a reputation for trouble in restrooms." Wu Fei only raised a brow. _Hilde_ would have laughed. What was it with his audiences lately? "Well he's just _standing_ there! What's he think he's doing, holding up the wall for her?"

"He is waiting for her to come out, listening for trouble, and watching us."

"What?!"

"You, Maxwell, are the one who claimed he knew everything within a ten mile radius. I imagine he's been aware of our presence for quite some time. Being spied on is something he would consider relevant. In fact, I am fairly sure he knows exactly what we are saying right now, judging by the way he is watching the place where our reflection must be on the glass over there."

As if to confirm Wu Fei's statement, Heero turned his head just enough to acknowledge them. Duo glared accusingly and went so far as to stamp his foot, before Wu Fei nudged him sharply and began a calm pace towards Heero's self-appointed post. Duo followed begrudgingly, still pouting.

"Sloppy work." Heero grunted, dispassionately.

"Yeah, well, she ran off. Whatchya gonna do?"

"You've taken countless prisoners into custody. You should be capable of watching one child without letting her escape."

"Well I didn't expect she'd go off on her own!"

"Then you were unprepared."

"Oh, and you're doing such a great job."

"It was not my mission. It fell into my lap and I have adapted as best I can without prior briefing."

"And what were you planning on doing with her?"

"If you didn't come forward, I would have delivered her to Quatre."

"Quatre's on his way to the Moon."

"Not yet; he is on the fifth level finalizing adjustments to his public schedule and relaying his parameters with Headquarters and his secretaries respectively. His private shuttle is scheduled to launch in twenty-eight minutes."

"Do you have micro-tracers in our blood streams or something? With recording systems and tiny cameras so you can keep track of everything we do? Do you know when we have sex?"

"Maxwell!"

"Considering what facts are readily available, I would surmise at the very least, five years ago."

"Hey! You know, I think I liked him better when he didn't joke. That _was_ a joke, right? Two jokes in almost six years, woah, don't push yourself there buddy, it's not like Trowa's giving you much of a race."

"Idiot, can you hold your tongue and be serious for five minutes, without needing your woman bleeding on the sidelines?"

"Well, I just can't stand the way he knows things about ourselves we don't even know! It's not fair. He should have put some of those devices in Relena so he'd have a record of when she was ovulating, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. And for the fourth time in the last two hours, _her name is Hilde!_" Duo pouted. Wu Fei changed the subject.

"Do you know what's happened on the Moon?"

"I am aware that a threat has been issued to members of the Peace Summit, yes."

"What about specifics? Do you know who is behind this thing? Where they are hiding?"

"That does not concern you. Your mission is merely the safe transport of this child. When that is completed, I am sure Lady Une will give you a full briefing on the situation at the Lunar Base." Duo contemplated his disinterest suspiciously. He would have thought even Heero Yuy would be just a little bit more enthusiastic if his daughter's life had been threatened. Then again, Heero's facial expressions were not the most trustworthy of mediums. Any number of thoughts could be running through his head right now, including anxiety over Hope's safety. After all, he was still human, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

*

18 Hours Later, December 16th, Lunar Peace Conference Facility, 11:00 AM Local Time

Quatre closed his eyes a moment, consciously relaxing his shoulders and clearing his mind for a brief moment of rest before facing Relena's back again. He had managed a grand total of four hours sleep during his emergency travel and the effect was beginning to show in his face. Relena turned her head away from the window to face him over her shoulder.

"Quatre. . . ."

"Please, Relena, It's alright. It hasn't been so long since the war that I'm incapable of functioning under strain. Nor am I so vain as to think I can stay up to watch over you for twenty-four hours; I need to sleep to stay effective, and as soon as Trowa has finished rerouting the surveillance, I'll go to bed for a while. And you need to rest yourself, you know ... Dorothy told me you were in and out of bed all night."

"And how would you suggest I rest?" She turned to face the window once more, her voice taking on a strained pitch. "My daughter is in danger and I can't do anything about it. I can't even be with her.... What if she's afraid? What if they're watching her right now? My God, Quatre, my own death doesn't frighten me, but _this_ ... this I can't bear. At least if I were killed, I know she'd be loved and cared for."

"We're doing everything we can. Hope is in two of the most capable sets of hands in the world, and neither Duo nor Wu Fei would stand for anyone harming an innocent child. She'll be protected in one of the most secure strongholds in the Earth Sphere, and I'll escort you to her personally as soon as we can leave here." His voice, already sincere, gently dropped a note. "And no one will ever hurt either of you. I'd die before I let that happen."

"Please don't say that Quatre ... I don't want anyone else to die for me. Least of all you."

He smiled faintly, wearily, even though she couldn't see his face. "If it helps any, I wasn't planning on dying except in an absolute worst case scenario. I fully intend to track down whoever is so unconscionably heartless that they could possibly find justice in righting a wrong with the life of a child. Right now, all I can think is to hope that they're bluffing. I simply cannot fathom that these people, whose entire platform is that they have lost their families, friends, and businesses to these Eve War leaders, would consent to the death of another person, merely to force their views on you."

"And if you're unable to track them down?"

"Then Hope will stay with me. I have so many nieces and nephews no one will give her a second thought. But we will neutralize this threat." He was silent a long moment before continuing in a hushed tone, "Despite the atrocity of their methods, there is a grain of truth beneath all that anger and hatred." Relena turned to face him completely.

"You aren't thinking of meeting their demands."

"No, those that have been tried and sentenced or acquitted have payed their debt, but there are those who have never received justice. I can't speak for the others, nor can I condemn them, but I would be lying if I told you I had never considered it before. It just seems that with the current state of affairs, it might form some sort of compromise if I were to come forw-"

"Stop it! For God's sake, Quatre; your life is not a chess game, do you understand that? You can't sacrifice yourself in hopes they'll take the bait and leave their king unprotected!"

"I'm not talking about sacrificing myself, I'm talking about taking responsibility for myself. I was a killer, Relena - you can't gloss over that. I destroyed two colonies."

"That wasn't you."

"If that's true, then I'll be acquitted."

"Or put to death. People make mistakes, and there are still those who don't regard the Gundams as heroes."

"Then maybe my death would let their wounds begin to heal."

"If you're so determined to do it, why have you waited five years?"

"If I turned myself in, I have no doubt Trowa would follow my example ... Wu Fei would see it as a matter of justice, and feel it his duty to be judged as well ... Heero would come forward out of his need to work for society and protect the people; he'd see it as his responsibility to the world. And once all four of us were incarcerated, Duo would jump on the bandwagon out of loyalty and guilt. If for no other reason, then to be able to bawl the rest of us out."

"So you see yourself as guilty but not the others. You still want to protect them from what you think is the right thing. You're a hypocrite, Quatre Winner."

"Maybe I am, but I cannot help how I feel."

"Quatre, you all have payed your debts, and then some. Wu Fei is working to save lives in the Preventers, as are Duo and Trowa, you have started and supported too many charities to count, and Heero," her voice caught and refused to function for a few seconds at the utterance of a name she had avoided saying for so many years. "Heero," she started again, "has already been tried, and found to have saved more lives than destroyed by his presence in the war and destruction of the Libra fragment."

"Heero has been tried? When? By who?"

"Yes, after the Eve War by the three head officials of the Preventers."

"You mean Lady Une, Sally, and Miss Noin? No wonder no one heard anything about it. Something of a biased jury, I think."

"No one wanted to betray him by turning it into a public spectacle."

"The fact still remains that the only way we can convey any message to these terrorists is through the media, and the actions we can take to that effect are severely limited, without compromising Hope."

"Then we'll find a way that doesn't involve a broadcast confession."

"Let me see the e-mail again, maybe there's something we're missing. If only it were hand written, I might be able to feel something from it."

"Your friend was right about you, you know. You'd blame yourself for the lack of air in space. There is no point in meaningless self-deprecating when the situation calls for action. It would be far more effective to put aside 'if onlys' and concentrate on what is," said a young woman with a devil-like smirk on her face and platinum blonde hair that reached to her calves who had walked into their conversation unannounced and unnoticed. 

"I didn't feel your presence. You've been practicing."

"Intelligence versus empathy. Never a dull moment since we first met."

"As I recall, when we first met, you were more interested in my companion than you were me."

"I made the critical error that so many have made when pitted against you by underestimating your influence on my strategic front. I confess, I was taken aback when I found out that you were a Gundam pilot. But even _you_ have to admit, I learned quickly."

"In any case, I assume you are here to relieve me?"

"Of course. It would just be cruel to ask you to watch over Miss Relena any longer. I know you have been awake almost as long as she has. You both need to sleep, but I don't need psychic abilities to tell me that it will be easier to convince you, than it has been her." Dorothy gave a nod in Relena's direction, obviously displeased at her lack of concern for her own well being. Quatre stood to leave and Relena rose from her point of vigil at the window to say goodnight.

"Quatre, please try to stop worrying over me and get some sleep? I'm not made of porcelain; I won't break if you drop me, you know," she chided wearily.

"I want you to try and sleep too. Hope is safe and protected. I'm sure that in a few hours, they'll have established a secure vidlink and you will be able to see for yourself that she is fine." Seeing doubt in her eyes, Quatre put his hands on his friend's shoulders to comfort her. He was unprepared for the waves of emotions that assailed his senses. For a precious few seconds, he felt all of her guilt, pain, sorrow, worry, fear, doubt, anxiety, anguish, and the ever present sense of responsibility to the people that had saved so many lives at such pihrryc personal cost, until he regained his control. He'd forgotten that he hadn't physically touched her since he had returned from his isolated training sessions, and hadn't been ready to block the visions of her memory that had flashed in his mind's eye and the onslaught of feelings, welled up from a lifetime of emotional hardships, and now overflowing with the latest endangerment of her daughter. Quatre pulled Relena into a strong embrace, as much for her sake as to reassure him that she was still there, and whole, and _wasn't _going to smash like a china doll.

Relena let her shoulders slacken and rested her head on Quatre's shoulder, exhausted. Since they had met, they had been very close. Almost like siblings. Relena had joked once that Quatre was a better brother than her real brother was.

"I hope so, Quatre."

"Everything will be fine. I promise."

"I'll keep praying," she responded. "This is the first time I've ever had to go through something like this without him...." Relena whispered, almost inaudibly. Quatre knew who "him" was and protectively held her tighter.

"Don't start talking like that. You are an incredibly strong person in your own right. Stronger than him. He knew that. You are the only one doubting it." he smiled faintly into her hair, before dipping his head to brush a kiss over her forehead. Dorothy observed the exchange seriously and then stepped out of his way as he slipped through the doorway. When she turned her face back to Relena, she was again wearing her customary mocking smile.

"Our dear Master Winner seems quite committed to you. You wouldn't want to cause him any more worry, now would you, Miss Relena?"

"If I didn't know better, Dorothy, I'd think you seemed almost jealous."

"Why, Miss Relena, I didn't know a prominent person like yourself could be interested in such gossip. After all, you and he make so much more picturesque a pairing. And wouldn't the press be thrilled. But no, Miss Relena, I am no more involved with Quatre Raberba Winner than you yourself."

"I didn't mean to offend, Dorothy, only you do seem rather attuned with each other."

"It is an understandable consequence of inhabiting each other's minds, if only briefly. It certainly lays the groundwork for an understanding. But not romance. We simply know each other too well for that. That is why I am certain he will agree to my choice of shifts for our watch of you."

"I don't know if I like that look in your eye. . . ."

*

36 Hours Later, December 17th, Experimental Mars Terra Forming Colony A-1

A tall woman with short dark hair that fell to cover part of her face, pushed the offending locks past her ear in exasperation and then went back to wrestling her two-year-old into his car seat. Her hands deftly dodged flailing limbs, and then fell to her sides when she finally heard the clasp click into place. The child stopped fighting, seeing the battle lost. She closed the car door and went back into the store. 

Zechs was completely baffled as to how two very reserved people could ever have spawned such a hellion. Lucrezia knew better. She had been told by family that when _she_ was that age, everything in the house had to either be locked away so she couldn't break it, or tied down so she wouldn't knock it over. 

The most recent display of uncouth behavior by her son had been pushing the entire stand of oranges over when his mother refused to buy the sugar coated cereal he so desperately wanted. His actions had forced her to remove him from the store that she was now preparing to reenter. 

She sighed and commandeered an abandoned cart, proceeding to push it past the automatic doors and the disapproving stares. She wasted no time in maneuvering through the store in a strategic pattern designed to get her to all the necessities in the least amount of time. Preferably before Alexander caught the attention of a sympathetic passerby. Again. 

Mere minutes later she was checking her watch, again, as she stood in line in the alleged "express" lane. Sparing an exasperated glare at the hundred-and-something old woman keying in each barcode by hand, she then glanced over at the magazine carousel in hopes of making the time pass faster. 

She was halfheartedly scanning the "thrilling" cover stories of romance and scandal, when the issue of Earth-Sphere United caught her attention. She stared at it, dumbstruck, to make sure she was seeing right before snatching it up. She studied the teaser photo of Relena and Quatre standing off together at some conference or another, and quickly thumbed through to the cover story. True to the tawdry claims of the cover, she was met by a giant, two page spread of Quatre Raberba Winner, somewhat rumpled, taking his leave of Zech's little sister, in her nightgown, at what was apparently the doorway to her suite of rooms. In the wee hours of the morning, no less. She quickly tossed the magazine on top of her small pile of groceries, staring ahead vacantly. She was rudely interrupted by the badly-dyed blonde behind her yelling that the lane was "twelve items or less!" and the magazine made thirteen. Gritting her teeth and fighting the urge to smack the woman back to her trailer park, she deftly swung her cart out of line and took a new space in one of the regular lanes. 

Her distemper was relieved somewhat by the aptitude of this cashier, practically throwing things across her scanner that the beeping was no more than a prolonged wail. She turned her attention back to the magazine cover thoughtfully, and gradually broke out into a smile.

"Well, Relena, I'm glad to see you've finally put Heero behind you. Quatre's a good choice." She frowned slightly, looking at the picture again, "Funny though ... I always kind of thought he was gay."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	6. Secrets

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Five_

Secrets

8:07 PM Local Time, Experimental Mars Terra Forming Colony A-1

"_Are you absolutely insane?_ You aren't going anywhere. You aren't even supposed to be alive! You haven't had a thing to do with her life since she was two, and you think that gives you the right to interfere with her happiness now? She's twenty-one years old, Zechs, and she's holding down one of the highest positions in existence: she's not just your _baby sister_."

"This has nothing to do with how old they are, or what they do. I'm going to the Moon because I have to."

"It's about love, Zechs! I knew Quatre; he was a sweet kid, and I don't think that's changed much. You're going crazy over nothing. A couple of war-orphans finding a little happiness together outside of all the pressure the world puts on them? That's a good thing! Even the tabloids aren't slandering them; this article is supporting them. Did you even _read_ it?"

"I don't have to read it, I have to see Relena. Before this goes any further. It doesn't matter how wonderful Quatre is or what the public thinks. They _can't_ be sleeping together."

"For God's sake, if this is about marriage or her honor-"

"I'll be damned before I let them marry."

"I don't understand what your problem is! It's just a photograph and some gossip! I'm sorry I even thought to show you! You are not going to the Moon to condemn her second chance at love!"

"Sit down, Lucrezia. I am not Alexander; I am not going to rush you; just sit down."

"Are you going to tell me what crawled up your ass and laid its eggs?"

"I'll explain if you just sit, and then I'm leaving."

"You aren't."

"Sit. Did you know Quatre Winner wasn't born of the Winner test tubes? Not many people do; it's quite the secret. The late Master Winner had a young wife he kept out of the public spotlight. I remember her vaguely, visiting with my mother when I was very young. They had been friends in finishing school I believe, but as I say, I was very young. She was from the Raberba line, one of the last of that family, if not the very last.

"I'm not certain of the specifics - it wasn't anything really discussed with a small son - but she was unable to create a child. It was some sort of condition on the marriage, as an unplanned pregnancy could have cost her life. For whatever reason, Quatrine decided she couldn't abide by that any longer and came to Mother for her help. All of her own eggs had been destroyed, and so, Mother gave up one of her own. The young man Relena may be sleeping with might have been carried by a Raberba and sired by a Winner, but he has the genes of a Peacecraft."

"You're telling me he's your _brother_?"

"Biologically. And judging by their apparent liaison, I would also hasten to assume he was never told."

"You've never said a word about it."

"It was never in the foreground of my mind. I was scarcely aware of his existence, outside of the occasional publicity photo in his father's shadow, until you told me he was one of the pilots. At that time, bringing what I knew of his parentage into the fray would have been useless, and one more moral obligation to consider, so it seemed best to let it go."

"And if you had killed him?"

"It was a war."

"That's a coward's response."

"It's the truth. He was a soldier; identity didn't matter."

"You targeted him personally!"

"He was commanding the Gundams."

"I'm going with you."

"Excuse me?"

"You're proposing to go star hopping to tell two people something they need to know, and, in my opinion, _deserve_ to have been told six years ago." She rose from her seat on the edge of the bed, sparing him a glare as she snatched the limp duffle bag from his stunned arms and turned to the dresser to shove some of her own clothes in with his. "You've convinced me of the need for intervention, but not that you're the one to do it. Somehow, I have a definite doubt as to your use of tact, and they're going to need sensitivity, especially if that article is true."

"I know the art of diplomacy, Lucrezia."

"And how to move in for the kill."

"What about Alexander?"

"Lexi will be fine, he'll love getting to visit the Moon."

"He is _not_ going with us!"

"Fine. He can stay with Rosemarie and her daughter for a few weeks. It'll be a little vacation for us." She dropped the bag and whisked out of the room to begin making calls, leaving Zechs standing stunned and trying to pinpoint exactly when he'd agreed to her accompaniment. 

*

Lunar Peace Conference Facility, December 18th, 6:23 AM Local Time

Her cheek rested on something warm; hard, but not unpleasantly so. She felt the weight of a limb across her shoulder and lower back, and was breathing the scent of laundered silk and the faint musk of the skin beneath it. 

"Not Heero," she thought vaguely as she drifted into consciousness. Though she'd only woken in his embrace a few times, it was unforgettable. He'd slept facing her, not pillowing her like this, and there was a sort of desperation in the way he'd clutched her close all night, with her face buried against his neck. The arm cradling her now was relaxed, a comforting presence, not the tense grip of a soldier who remained alert even in sleep, as if expecting her to be ripped away at any time.

For a moment her heartbeat quickened as she realized the implication of her situation, and then calmed again as she remembered the circumstance of how she had gotten this way. Opening her eyes a little she released a small sigh, nuzzling her cheek gently against the young man's chest as she struggled to hang on to this brief moment of contentment. There was something chaste and reassuring about it, as if, just for right now, _she_ was four years old again, waking up in her father's arms after a night of nightmares being driven away. That thought brought her mind back to Hope, and grim reality forced her out of her peaceful respite.

She tilted her head to look up and found Quatre was already awake, impossibly blue pools watching her with an expression that defied definition; a seamless blending of sorrow and encouragement and understanding that was purely Quatre. She wondered vaguely how long he might have been letting her sleep, and if he might have been somehow following her train of thought, if not just her string of emotions. She had never had one of those moments that she had observed between him and Trowa, and sometimes him and Dorothy, where it seemed somehow that an entire conversation had been exchanged when all they had done was look at each other. But he always seemed to be aware of her feelings and know just how to comfort her. 

"Is it time to be up. . . ?" she murmured. Quatre offered a small smile, shifting to sit up as she pulled away from him.

"Not quite, but it probably is time for me to take my leave, if I want to have time to bathe and dress before talks resume."

"Mmm, they already have the incriminating photos, you might as well shower here and save yourself some time."

"I don't really think we should fan the flames," she was momentarily amazed that at twenty-one, there was still a blush rising in his cheeks, "I mean, it just wouldn't be right, for me to, that is-"

"Quatre, you _do_ realize you just spent the night in my bed, don't you?"

"Ah...."

"I don't think your being undressed behind my bathroom door would be so terribly scandalous at this point. It isn't as if I'd be in there with you." He was blushing in earnest now.

"You're right, of course. I simply don't want to impose - sometimes I just can't seem to separate myself from my upbringing."

"The reflex against anything unseemly can be strong, but really, now that it's begun we should ride it out."

"But if we allow the press to go on covering us as lovers, it could be devastating to our public personas when we ... well, when we don't stay together."

"To be perfectly honest, I almost think we _should_ just stay together."

"P-pardon me?"

"I'm sorry, not to put you on the spot. It's only that it seems like it would be easier. . . . Heero's never coming back, and Hope would have a father ... if she were _our_ child, we wouldn't have to keep her such a secret ... and as you said, the public does love us." Quatre quirked a brow, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth.

"I do see your point ... no more pressure to take a bride and start siring heirs ... no attempted set-ups by well-meaning old men..."

"No opportunistic attempts at courtship ... no one telling me to get over Heero and move on with my life..."

"No more 'Ten Most Eligible Bachelors in the Earth Sphere' spreads ... no awkward explanations ... I can't believe I'm having this conversation..."

"God - neither can I."

"I don't think it would work out in the long run, though ... I'm afraid I ... I might not measure up to my husbandly duties..."

"It isn't as if I'll be missing anything."

"It wouldn't be fair ... to either of us ... I don't think I could be any more a lover to you than to ... to one of my _sisters_."

"I see. You just don't find me attractive."

"It's not that."

"Well, what then?"

"It ... it would be practically _incestuous!_ If Duo and Hilde split up I wouldn't be able to be with her, either."

"So you'll need to have your affair while they're still together."

"Relena!" She was laughing so hard she couldn't muster a response, but he didn't look as if he were really angry. Shocked, flustered, and even somewhat amused, but not angry. After a bit of effort she looked at him seriously again, laughter still threatening.

"Quatre, are you a _virgin?_"

"_What?!_" Now he was _very_ flustered. She bit her lip to keep from laughing before continuing.

"Well, the only person I've ever seen you paired with is me, and I have it on good authority that we haven't slept together. . . ."

"That's not true - there was that story last year about me and Dorothy after they got those pictures of us in Berlin!"

"And you haven't slept with her, either. The closest thing to a date you ever bring to functions is Rasid, and I'm fairly certain you haven't slept with him." Quatre abandoned his protests and simply buried his face in his hands. Relena was feeling more cheerful than she had in days. "You've never mentioned any women, and you've never admitted to any relationship with Trowa..."

"You say 'admit' as if I need to confess. If no one's mature enough to ask, they certainly aren't mature enough to be answered!"

"You haven't answered _me._"

"And I don't intend to!" In a melodramatic huff he abandoned her bed before snatching the missing pieces of his attire from the settee where he had been sleeping, last night excluded, and then shutting himself indignantly in her bathroom. Relena collapsed into more giggles at the display that, she knew, was purely a selfless performance to lighten her spirit.

*

8:41 AM, Lunar Peace Conference Facility

"We should go on just as planned before the threat. With the way rumors are flying, it will look perfectly normal for Relena to leave with Quatre."

"We all go to L4 for Christmas, the way it was scheduled, and Hades and Smoke bring Hope with them, instead of Relena. She'll be written off as part of his family there, and with four Gundam Pilots and four other Preventers already the extent of the guest list, it should be the most secure space available."

Trowa nodded curtly in agreement, his eyes never leaving the vidscreen he and Dorothy were monitoring. "They'll leave here directly after the last meeting, skipping the formal Christmas closing ceremony. I'll be on the shuttle with them."

"And I shall remain here until the facility is completely closed, monitoring the other dignitaries, and then meet up with Hades and Smoke on their way to L4. It's all perfectly lovely, but what about Heero?" Dorothy continued. Trowa spared her a noncommital glance before returning his attention to the two youngest diplomats at the long table displayed on their vidscreen.

"What about him?"

"You tell me, Sir Rain."

"Hades and Smoke encountered him at the refueling station on their way to the Preventer base on MO-II."

"Then he discovered Miss Relena's Christmas present."

"Hades informed him of Sandstorm's 'shindig' over Christmas, and overtly invited him. Smoke relayed all this to me in his last transmission." 

"Well, we haven't had a good Christmas battle in a while; I'm sure the great Heero Yuy will remedy that."

"There is no guarantee that he'll even show up."

"On the contrary, it is impossible that he _won't. _What there is no guarantee of, is whether or not he'll make his presence known. And to what ends. It will behoove us to be prepared for the eventuality of his interference." 

*

3:15 PM Universal Time, Preventer Base A12, Resource Satellite MO-II

"We have confirmation of their departure. ETA on L4-A01: 1700 UT, tomorrow."

"Geez, man, you're getting to be as bad as Heero. Can't you just say that they should get there around five?"

"Ignoring that, Maxwell, they should be far enough out of range of the Lunar Facility to make a secure transmission undetected in roughly three hours."

"Three hours, huh?"

"That _is_ what I just said," Wu Fei spat, irritated.

"So who's hailing us now?" He blinked and glanced over, to see Duo lounging bonelessly in his chair with his feet on the console, toying obliviously with the end of his braid. And then, sure enough, noted the blinking light on his monitor.

"Well, Maxwell, to find out, you could try accepting the signal." he grumbled, fighting the urge to massage his temples.

"Damn, Wu, I'd have never thought of that one," Duo rolled his eyes as he kicked his feet down and leaned forward to play with the com-link, "I was just wondering if you were expecting anyone. Opening transmission ... Sonofabitch, it's Milly! What the hell are you doing out of the boon docks? Is Noin with you?" Wu Fei shot his gaze back over to Duo's screen, ignoring his prattle, and was met by the visage of Zechs Marquise.

"Don't call me 'Milly'."

"It's hopeless," Wu Fei advised, bumping Duo's chair to the side with his own so he could face the blonde. "I have spent the better part of our time together trying to coerce him into addressing me properly, and he still can't seem to remember my correct name. But despite his inane babbling, Hades does have a valid point. Is it wise for you to be out this far, agent Wind? And what is your purpose?"

"Your animosity, though well contained, is duly noted, agent Smoke. I had intended my rendezvous for the Moon, but it seems I was too late to meet my target."

"So Une called you in on this deal too? She must be getting desperate." Wu Fei spared Duo (now leaning over his shoulder) another glare as Zechs responded, somewhat incredulous.

"You mean you are aware of the situation?"

"Since the beginning. Rel and Q are on their way to L4 now for Christmas-"

"Maxwell!"

"What? He's on the same mission." Duo turned back to the blonde on the vidscreen, "Anyway, we're intercepting them there. Well, catching up to them, really. Their route is about two hours faster than ours, and we aren't scheduled to depart until 1500. It's already covered by Q's party. Works out great, really; we're all supposed to be there anyway. Hey, did you get an invite out there in no-man's land? Doesn't matter, Quatre won't mind you crashing. You know, really, if Satan himself came knocking, Quatre'd invite him in for tea. I guess you're pretty close. No offense, just that whole destroying mankind spiel of yours. Not that I'm keeping score or anything, and Rel'll definitely want you there, and Q never steps on anyone's toes, even if he has to cut off his own feet to do it-"

"Maxwell, would you shut up!" Wu Fei growled, giving in and rubbing his temples to ward off the threatening headache. "I believe the point he was trying to make is that the situation is being handled. There is no need for the urgency of your visitation."

"I see. Still, I'm sure you can appreciate the weight this matter carries for me personally, and won't begrudge my involvement, even if superficially."

"I suppose, since it does concern family. Very well, Merquise. We will not impede your sojourn. If you alter your flight path now, from your current coordinates if will take you approximately thirty one hours to reach the Winner estate on L4-A01. That is a mere five hours behind their schedule."

"Many thanks, Preventer Smoke."

*

December 19th, 7:30 PM Local Time, Winner Estates, Private Docking Bay, L4-A01.

"There she is!" They had barely gotten the stairs wheeled into place beneath the shuttle door when Relena broke away from Quatre's side to meet her daughter tearing haphazardly down, looking with each step as if she were about to lose her balance, but never quite tripping.

"Mommieee!" Relena caught her on the last step, hugging her with all the genuine closeness no com-link between their shuttles had been able to reproduce. Either Duo or Wu Fei, if not both, had taken it upon themselves to dress her up properly for her reception as a guest. She had been carefully clad in a full skirted dress of dark green velvet, white tights, and black patent leather shoes. One of them had even managed to brush out her snagged curls enough to clip a matching bow neatly at the nape of her neck. When later questioned as to where the ensemble had come from, Duo would merely comment that he'd missed a few birthdays.

By the time Duo and Wu Fei alighted from the stairs, Relena was just relaxing her grip on Hope and was able to turn a grateful smile to the both of them, for once, at a loss for words. Quatre, meantime, had followed Relena over, smiling broadly and embraced first Duo, with a kiss on the cheek, and then Wu Fei, somewhat more reservedly and sans kiss. To Relena's mild surprise Wu Fei, while not hugging back as Duo had, made no protest to the Arabian's affectionate greeting and in fact, if stoically, appeared to welcome it. He grasped Wu Fei's hands meaningfully for a moment longer, attesting to some silent recognition of kinship, and then turned to usher them to the car that would take them up to the mansion itself.

*

10:00 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

The soft patter of unshod feet on the hardwood floor caused Relena to pry her eyes open and see who had snuck into her room. As she forced her eyes to focus, she found herself staring into familiar violet pools. Relena rubbed the sleep from her eyes and took in the small girl in flannel pajamas; blonde hair mussed and right hand clutching the limp limb of a worn teddy bear.

"What's wrong, Nadey?" Relena asked in an unsteady and still half asleep voice.

"I had a bad dream. . . . Can I sleep with you?" she queried in a whisper.

"Of course you can," Relena said as she pulled the comforter back for her daughter. Hope hoisted herself over the edge of the bed and crawled under the covers to lay beside her mother. As Relena pulled the comforter to cover herself and Hope, she rolled over to face her.

"Will you tell me a story, Mommy?"

"Which one do you want to hear?"

"The one about my name," she responded immediately. Relena smiled softly to herself in the dark, knowing that she had planned this.

"OK, but only because it's your favorite and you had a nightmare." She saw Hope's small mouth curve into a smile, half hidden by shadows.

"It was the year After Colony 197, and the people of Earth had put down the Barton Foundation's coup d'etat-"

"What does coo-tada mean, Mommy?" Hope interrupted.

"It means that they were trying to use their armies to take over the government. May I continue?"

"Yes."

"Your father had destroyed the Barton Foundation's stronghold, and all the soldiers were coming out of their mobile suits to give up. Nobody wanted to fight anymore. 

"We all tried to go back to normal life. Duo returned to L2 to live with Hilde, and found out a few days later that she was pregnant. Boy was he happy! Once he dislodged the pastry from his trachea. And Trowa went back to the circus to be with his sister. Quatre took over his father's position as the head of Winner Corporation, and Wu Fei joined the Preventers and started working with Dr. Sally."

"And Daddy?"

"Your father was in the hospital for exhaustion, so I stayed there with him. When he was released from the hospital, we spent some time together."

"But the world still needed his protection, so he had to leave, right?"

"Right. One morning I woke up and he just wasn't there. But he left me with two things. A beautiful Nadeshiko flower on my pillow and-"

"And me!"

"Yes, and you. But I didn't know about you yet. Dr. Sally told me about you a few weeks later."

"Where was I?"

"You were in my tummy," she took Hope's hand and placed it at her abdomen. "Right there. But you were so tiny that nobody knew." She pinched her pointer finger and thumb together so that only a pinprick could be seen separating them and squinted through it. "You were just an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, microscopic, little-"

"_Mom_my," Hope huffed, exasperated at her mother's patronizing.

"Well, you were _small_. Anyway, I had been very sad that your father had needed to leave, but when Sally told me that I was pregnant, I was soooo happy! I just wanted to tell everyone I knew!"

"But you couldn't."

"No, I couldn't. I had to keep you a secret."

"Why?"

"Because if I told everybody, then people who didn't like me might try to hurt you in order to hurt me."

"When I get hurt, you hurt, too?"

"Yes. I'm your mother and I love you. When you love someone, you want to do everything you can to try and protect them. So I didn't tell anyone about you."

"'cept Grandma, the Lady, Quatre, and Dr. Sally."

"Yes, except for them."

"But what about my name?"

"Be patient; I was just getting to that. So when you were born, I already knew what I was going to name you. I gave you the first name of Hope, because I wanted more than anything for you to live in a world with out war, and for you to never know the pain of it. I gave you the middle name of Nadeshiko after the flower that looks delicate but is strong. And the surname of Peacecraft, so that you would always know your family and heritage. You are the fourteenth generation of Peacecraft, and when I retire, we are going to move away from New London and live in the house of our antecedents. In a place that used to be the Cinq Kingdom, on edge of the ocean."

"Tell me about the Cinq Kingdom, Mommy."

"That is another story, for another night. It is late and we should go back to sleep." Hope sighed and snuggled up to her mother. 

"Sleep sweet, Nadey," Relena whispered to her daughter.

"Sleep sweet, Mommy," Hope murmured back into the pillow of her mother's breast. Relena listened to her breathing and waited for the slow, even patterns indicating sleep. She relaxed and tried to sleep as well, but couldn't. After a few minutes, she slipped out of the bed and padded over to the window seat. She lowered herself onto the cushions and looked up at the holographic sky of the colony. Dissatisfied with the projected Earth constellations, she closed her eyes and imagined the stars she had been able to see out her window in the Cinq kingdom. Her mind meandered through the memories, pausing here and there to relive some days, and hurrying past others. Eventually, she drifted to sleep; sitting on the window seat, her legs pulled up to her chest, and her head tilted towards the imitated sky.

*

He was vaguely aware of Noin on his heels trying to say something as he burst through the heavy oaken doors of the Winner Library. His murderous gaze swept the room, taking in first Wu Fei, who secretly loved to be prodded into reading aloud, with a volume of Dickens opened in his lap as he sat beside the fireplace, pausing mid-sentence at the intrusion. Then Duo, sprawled almost gracefully across a leather sofa with a bowl of popcorn balanced on his chest, presumably listening to Wu Fei. For once. And Trowa, seated beside Duo's feet, thoughtfully perusing a sheaf of papers printed with music; presumably Christmas carols, considering there were going to be at least three children to entertain.

"Where is my sister?"

*

10:30 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion , L4-A01

A soft and muffled rapping on her door woke Relena. She twisted her neck around to view her surroundings, having temporarily forgotten where she was, and then cringed. She'd fallen asleep at the window and now she was paying for it with a crick in her neck. The gentle rapping came again, and she swung her legs over and stood, stumbling as her feet tingled for the lack of circulation. She looked over to the bed, but Hope was undisturbed in her slumber. She slept soundly, a trait inherited form her father, no doubt. That stray thought made her wonder what Heero might have been like if Dr. J had never asked him to pilot the Wing. The rapping came a third time, and Relena dismissed her mind's wanderings to open the door.

She found herself face to face with one of the maids on duty who quickly gave a short nod of apology and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, but someone has arrived and requested a private audience with you at once."

"Who?" Relena queried.

"I was not told. I was only instructed to awaken you and bring you to the master study."

"By whom?" She pressed, becoming slightly agitated at the prospect of changing back out of her nightclothes to endure some impromptu meeting regarding whatever "urgent" matter had come up in the last few hours.

"Master Trowa, ma'am. He seemed to think the matter most pressing."

"But not pressing enough to disturb Quatre? Very well, I'll be along shortly. Did he indicate anything of the nature of the visit?"

"No, ma'am, only that you were needed immediately."

"Immediately, hmm?" With a deepening frown, she snatched the white silk robe from the arm of the fainting couch and shrugged it over her shoulders, deftly tying the sash around her waist as her feet found the matching slippers, and then, with surprising dignity, padded down the hall after the maid. 

Several meters of richly adorned corridors later, she was finally presented with the tall mahogany door to Quatre's study. With a deep breath she pushed it open.

She was met at first by the rather familiar sight of Trowa holding up the wall from the far corner of the room. The silent observer, biding his time. He turned his head a bit to catch her eyes with his own piercing gaze, and then shifted it back again, directing her attention to the other end of the expansive room. She gasped harshly as she recognized the back of a pacing Milliardo Peacecraft and the seated form of Lucrezia Noin beside him on the small couch. Zechs turned sharply at the sound, fixing her with a stare she found more unnerving than Heero's had ever seemed, and she was momentarily glad that Trowa had apparently taken it upon himself to oversee the proceedings. Only then did it occur to her to wonder why they had come and why he seemed so furious. She felt a debilitating sinking feeling as she realized it could only be that he had found out about Hope. His glower, she noticed, had drifted from her face and seemed to be roving over the fragile silk robe, as if trying to surmise what was beneath it, and she felt her cheeks begin to flush with anger.

"I've interrupted you from entertaining _him, _I suppose? Do you know what you're doing? I cannot believe you would bring such filthy disgrace-"

"Zechs!" Noin had sprung from her seat to grab hold of his arm, fighting valiantly to keep peace in the room. "Miss Relena, I apologize for having disturbed you so late. We would have arrived before you retired if there had been any way we could have piloted here any faster, but I'm afraid we didn't get here until just now. It's been a very long flight and I think both of us are a little short tempered, but the matter we came about is urgent."

"Short tempered is an inaccurate description when it seems quite obvious to me that _he_ is _livid. _I would like to know what you think gives you the right to rule on my propriety and barge onto Quatre's property to condemn me in the middle of the night, _Zechs Merquise._" 

"What gives _me _the right? The fact that I am your brother not withstanding, do you have any idea how disgusting your affair is, or its repercussions? Do you have no sense of duty to your family?!"

"How dare you degrade _my _sense of family duty and claim yourself to be my brother! I am not the one who discarded my name and turned against my father's teachings! The way I understand it, Milliardo Peacecraft does not exist, and I have no brother. My 'affair' is most certainly none of your business! And _you _were not there to guide me when it began, so you need not blame me for it now. I refuse to be ashamed of loving another human being, and I will _never _regret the repercussions!"

"You have no conception whatsoever of what you've done!"

"And so you've waited five years to tell me?!"

"You mean to tell me this has been going on for_ five years?!_"

*

Hope awoke alone. Something was wrong. Mommy was gone. Ordinarily, this would not have disturbed her so greatly, but it was plainly still the middle of the night, and Mommy was supposed to be all hers, all Christmas, so she highly doubted that she'd left early to meet with any delly-cats. She pushed herself up to a seated position in the center of the giant poster bed and looked around to confirm that she was, in fact, alone. She then rolled her way over to the edge and slid down to the floor, righting herself on bare feet and straightening her nightgown.

She first regarded the door that led out to the hall, but with the weight of recent experiences on her mind she concluded that it might not be wise to go wandering around the strange house alone. Besides, if Mommy came back and found her missing she might cry again, and Hope sincerely did not want that. She then turned her attention to a fourth door that led to neither the hallway, the bathroom, or the closet. She and Mommy were sleeping in what Duo had called the Mistress' chamber. He had seemed to find this intensely amusing, but Hope had not understood the joke, and couldn't get Mommy to explain it to her. All she would say was that they'd be close by to Quatre and very safe with him right through the door.

She'd been shy of Quatre at first; she'd never really realized that Mommy's friend was the same man she sometimes saw on the news. It didn't take long, however, to reconcile the smiling man who's face she knew from television with the vague memories she had of a nice man when she was just a little kid. Quatre, she decided, would be the best course of action. On tiptoe, she crept stealthily through the doorway and looked around. Quatre's room was bigger than the mistress one and had a decidedly more lived-in look. The mistress room was all formal and made up, but this one, while just as richly furnished, was adorned with personal items. It reminded her a bit of Mommy's room at home with it's shelves of books (real books, not the kind for show - she could tell by the bent spines) and nicknacks and pictures. The adventurer in her couldn't resist taking the opportunity to look around before waking Quatre up. 

Most of it was grownup stuff that she either didn't understand, or just found boring. On a dresser she found a box of jewelry that was interesting, and she wondered why a boy had so many pretty rings and pendants. In a far corner she was enraptured for a while by a very impressive dollhouse. While she had one of her own at home, it was decidedly more cute looking, and _this_ one was almost as tall as she was. After inspecting a few of the rooms that seemed familiar, she decided that it was probably a miniature of the entire manor. From what she knew of boys, she had not expected they played with doll houses. She was suitably impressed. One desk drawer yielded a thick, leather-bound book of handwriting and a box of chocolates. She was beginning to like Quatre very much. Mommy never hid chocolates where she could find them. And that was quite a feat.

Once she was satisfied with her exploration, she crept over to the high, curtained bed. To her immense surprise, a gentle voice ventured out from the pillows the moment she laid hands on the dark velvet coverlet.

"Does everything meet with your approval, Princess?" When she was too startled to answer, she saw him turn over on his side and prop himself up on an elbow to look at her. She was relieved to see he was smiling. "What's bothering you tonight, that you thought I might help you with?"

"I'm sorry...." she whispered.

"For what, Princess? You've done nothing wrong. You haven't broken or stolen anything, so I don't see any harm. I won't even tell your mother about the candy." He smiled again when he saw her look away bashfully and then extended his arm in offering to pull her up onto the bed with him.

"Would you like me to bring you a piece too?" She asked quickly before accepting, noting curiously that he wasn't wearing any shirt in bed.

"No, thank you," he shook his head lightly, "I'm afraid I can't have any chocolate for a few weeks yet."

"That's terrible!" He laughed softly at her horror. "Why can't you? Did you do something bad?"

"No, not lately. It's part of a holiday, Ramadan."

"I though it was Christmas."

"It's that too ... but Christmas is a Christian holiday, and I'm Muslim, so I celebrate different holidays than you do."

"You don't celebrate Christmas? Then how come you're having a party?"

"I don't celebrate the birth of God on Christmas, no, but I can celebrate the ideals of peace on Earth and goodwill to men, and also the end of the war. Christmas is a very special holiday, you know. In fact, the first Christmas I ever celebrated was on the year you were born; it was the very first Christmas with complete peace."

"Will Santa Claus still come even if you aren't Christian. . . ?"

"Of course he will. Now, would you like to tell me why you're worried about your mother?"

"How did you know that!"

"It's what you were thinking about when you came in."

"You can read minds?"

"No, not really. But if something's upsetting you and you want to be helped, your mind makes it as easy as possible for someone to see that."

"Mommy's gone."

"Gone?"

"I woke up and she wasn't sleeping with me anymore."

"Ah, well, I'll tell you what. What do you say you and I take the servant's hall down to my study? I have the house's security monitors fed into my vidscreen, and we'll see where your mommy has gotten to."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	7. Family?

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Six_

Family?

(A.K.A. - The Battle of the Blondes)

10:30 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

  


Quatre took her hand again and led her across the room to a small door partially hidden in the shadows. He turned the knob and it swung open silently, revealing a narrow and Spartanly adorned hallway with plain white walls and carpeting. The pair padded down the corridor quietly, passing many small doors identical to the one they had used in Quatre's room. After a short walk, Quatre stopped in front of a door, that Hope could only assume led to the afore mentioned study. Quatre gave her a reassuring smile as he placed his fingers on the handle, but he started when he touched it and drew back slightly. He seemed puzzled and simply stared at the door. Hope in turn was mystified and also stared at the door in hopes it might reveal a clue. The door remained mute. There was nothing inertly spectacular about it, but it appeared to baffle Quatre by the way his brows knit together as he scrutinized it. After a few moments, he merely shrugged and pushed the door open.

*

"You mean to tell me this has been going on for_ five years?!_" Zechs was aghast. He was startled out of his debilitation, however, by the bookshelf behind Quatre's desk swinging open without the merest whisper. His ice blue eyes narrowed as he was met with the visage of one Quatre Raberba Winner clad only in the lower half of his night garments. His eyes widened in horror and he gasped sharply as he caught a glimpse of a small, blonde child peeking out from behind Quatre's legs. A small blonde child that seemed to have been born in the last five years. 

Fire burned in his eyes as he returned his glare to Relena and growled, "_What_ is THAT!?"

Silent fury welled within Relena's small frame and she took on the air of a lioness: more ferocious than anyone present in the room had ever seen her. 

"_'That,'_ as you so callously put it, is my beloved _repercussion_. And I will not tolerate you continuing this persecution in front of her. She's had nothing to do with any of it, and will not fall victim to your witch-hunt." Scanning the scene briefly, Quatre turned abruptly around to retreat the way he came; small child in tow. In an instant, Zechs had closed the distance between them, hooking a hand roughly around Quatre's shoulder and jerking him back around. Without anyone having seen him move, Trowa suddenly appeared in the small space separating the two blondes, forcing Zechs to step back with no more than a fiercely promising glare. At the borderline-violent turn of events, Hope's gaze flickered around the room in panic, hiding herself as best she could behind the defensive stance Quatre's legs formed.

"My god-" Zechs choked, "do you have the slightest idea what you've done?"

"Get away from them this instant," Relena hissed, a blazing pillar of protective maternal instinct, "you're terrifying her! Let Quatre take her back to bed." Trowa crossed his arms over his chest, in apparent agreement with Relena's statement. And Noin, all but forgotten across the room, contributed her own concession in attempt to persuade Zechs from traumatizing the child any further. Zechs, however, remained blissfully unaware of his effect on Hope and turned on Relena to grasp her by the arm. 

"With your own brother!?"

"I told you before, you are no longer my brother. I'll thank you to take your hostility and leave before I have you bodily removed," she said while yanking her arm free. Quatre lowered his arm behind him until his hand found the top of Hope's head, stroking her hair reassuringly before stepping out from behind the shield Trowa had embodied.

"Zechs, I can see the current state of affairs has you understandably agitated, but you are causing undue distress among my guests, and I'm afraid it would be best right now if you were to leave. Perhaps after you've had the night to sleep on it, we might be able to undertake this discussion more civilly."

"You've poisoned our bloodline in that child. She should never have been born, let alone, conceived-" Whatever more Zechs was going to say was eclipsed by a ringing slap. Relena looked ready to kill, and Hope was suitably horrified. "You dare strike me after having such an abhorrence of an affair and producing a child from it without even telling me?" Noin, who had taken up stance behind his left shoulder, kicked him in the ankle and coughed something that sounded like "glass houses."

"Get out, Zechs. I won't say it again." Zechs shifted his attention to Quatre once again.

"And you. This is unforgivable from you. The peerless strategist, and alleged empath. How could you have failed to figure it out? How could you not know your mother took the fruit of her womb from _our_ mother?" Relena sucked in her breath sharply and Quatre bristled, his face and tone taking on a severity and coldness very few had ever seen from him.

"You, sir, are grossly mistaken. I have no mother, and I would appreciate it greatly if you would leave now."

"Don't be a fool, of course you had a mother, and she-"

"I have no mother, I was born of a petri dish of genetic material grown into a test tube of organic matter. And I'll thank you not to speak of it again. I don't believe we have anything further to discuss, so you won't mind me having you escorted out."

"You don't know? You never even asked? Are you such a spoilt brat that you never bothered to find out your mother was Quatrine Satir Raberba-Winner?" Quatre didn't say a word. He turned silently on his heel and disappeared without so much as a glance at either Trowa or Hope. Back through the hallway from whence he came. If Relena had _looked_ ready to kill, Trowa _was._

"So much for _diplomacy,_" Noin hissed furiously in his ear. 

Before Trowa could direct the force of his deadly quiet remuneration at the offending party, Zechs was reprieved by virtue of Hope having climbed into the haven of Quatre's desk chair and drawing attention to herself with a cry of "Mommy!" 

The four adults turned to see her attention captured by a small framed photograph she had somehow pulled down from a shelf. She was proudly displaying her prize - a quick glimpse of five young men not quite out of their boyhood, standing candidly around a desk, each clad in some form or another of the sleek Preventer uniform.

"Mommy!" she cried again. "It's Duo, and Uncle Wuffie, and Quatre, and Mister Trowa, and Otousan's with them!" Relena went pale.

"Wh-what did you say?" Relena stuttered. "Who is with them?"

"Otousan," she repeated less vehemently, not sure what she had said to make the color drain from her mother's face so quickly. Relena, in turn, looked at the picture and felt her pulse quicken as she found herself caught in "Otousan's" glare at the anonymous photographer. 

She returned her attention to her daughter's puzzled gaze and took a breath to calm herself before continuing, "How do you know him?" 

Hope seemed reassured by her mother's voice returning to its former stability and answered nonchalantly, "I met him when we got on the satellite. I got lost, but then I found Otousan and he took me back to Duo and Wu Fei. He was mean at first, but he got me ice cream and ... and he said his name was Otousan. Did he lie again...?"

"Lie _again_. . . ?"

"Well, first he said he was Duo, but he's not Duo. I could tell. And he thought I was Duo's daughter, and Quatre's, and then he said you were my mommy and we got ice cream and he took me to the bathroom. Then I had to go back on the shuttle. Is he coming for Christmas too?" Relena was spared finding an answer to that by a muffled thud from the hallway. Trowa threw open the door to reveal the real Duo recovering his balance on hands and knees, an incriminating glass on the floor beside him.

"Duo."

"I ... thought I saw a spider. I could, um, trap it in here and take it outside. Oh look, there it goes-" he was prevented from crawling away by a rough hand catching his collar and dragging him unceremoniously to his feet. "Yo, Wu-man."

"I _told _you to leave them alone, idiot."

"I was just looking for your contact lens..." 

"I'm wearing them, Duo."

"Ah! Well! Another mystery solved! I guess I'll be going to bed now."

"I thought you were trying to catch a spider." Trowa interjected calmly.

"Little bugger's too fast for me! I can't see it around here anywhere."

"You were eavesdropping."

"I cannot tell a lie." Silence ensued.

"Well?"

"Domestic espionage." 

"Next time, use the security room."

"Well ya see, Tro, I would have ... but it was a little ... occupied. Good hiding place for Christmas presents, if you catch my drift. Wouldn't be very holly-jolly of me to ruin all the surprises, would it?" Trowa surveyed him calmly for a few moments, barely nodding his recognition of the silent message that seemed to pass between the two men.

"Make yourself useful, then, and go after Quatre. I think it would be best for Hope to go with Wu Fei for now, it's very late. The grownups need to have a little talk."

*

Wu Fei's voice was low and hypnotic as he continued his story of Pangu separating the earth and the sky, lulling her closer and closer to the edge of sleep. This, of course, she knew, was his intent. Grownups could be very tricky that way. To maintain her resolve of staying awake, she occasionally broke her mind away from the legend he was weaving to turn over in her mind everything she had seen and heard in Quatre's office. She didn't know what fruit of the womb meant, but suspected it might be undergarments of some kind. She couldn't make sense of anything that the tall man had been saying to Mommy and Quatre, but she knew it had made Mommy very, very angry, and Quatre very, very upset. And it had something to do with her. That was enough to cement her dislike for the time being.

Quatre's picture made her head hurt less to think about. She knew it had to be pretty old since Quatre was almost a head shorter than Duo, and Wu Fei's shoulders were considerably narrower. Not to mention, Otousan looked sort of like one of those funny highschool boys on the soap operas Grandma liked to watch. She knew Quatre and Mister Trowa were Preventers, just like Duo and Wu Fei; Mommy had told her so. She said they'd even fought together in the war. The war her Daddy'd won, she amended in her head proudly. Duo'd fought alongside her Daddy even. If Quatre and Wu Fei and Mister Trowa had all fought together too, they had probably known her daddy as well. 

But why was Otousan in the picture with them? They must have been friends, too. After all, he'd known who Duo and Quatre were when she'd met him on his ship. If he was a Preventer with them, he'd probably fought in the war too. 

But how come she'd never heard anything about him before? Mommy liked to tell stories about the brave things they'd done in the war, and Duo had told many (if less idyllic) war stories himself. Unless.... 

Something in her mind seemed to click into place. Was it possible Otousan was really her daddy...? But Mommy had said that her father had given her Mr. Snuffullufagus and Otousan didn't seem to know anything about that. And she seemed to remember Duo calling her father by name once. She strained to recall what he had said to the letter. Something like: "kids'll be kids, and Hero's kid is bound to be adventurous." Was that it? Was that her father's name? Hero? It _did_ seem to make sense, what with the way Mommy always described him. So Otousan couldn't possibly be Hero. Of course, he'd lied about his name in the first place, what was to stop him from doing it again? And besides, Otousan didn't seem like a shining white knight. He was even kind of mean. Unless - maybe he'd been acting so she wouldn't know it was him and be sad when he went away again. She tugged urgently on Wu Fei's sleeve.

*

"You thought _Quatre_ was Hope's father?"

"What else was I supposed to think? Your Preventer friends confirmed your affair."

"But we thought you were talking about the threat on Hope's life," Duo defended.

"I thought you were going after Quatre."

"Well, he had his door locked, so I figured he didn't want company." Trowa made no response. 

"What I don't understand is what was so urgent about a tabloid that you'd come all the way out here. I would think an affair with Heero would be more scandalous, but you seem relieved."

"Because Heero is not a Peacecraft."

"You're saying Quatre _is?_"

"A Greywoods, technically: the shared DNA is on Mother's side."

"But how could we share DNA?"

"Our mother was the egg donor in Quatre's conception."

"So his father used a natural zygote rather than a selective genetic code?"

"No. His wife wanted to have a child naturally."

"Then it was true? What you said to him about having a mother?"

"Of course."

"Well he didn't know that!" Relena emitted a rather hysterical laugh. "And he really is my brother."

"Half brother."

"Brother enough to send you charging out here to separate us after five years in exile," she snapped. She then turned on Duo, "Now maybe you'd better tell me just what happened when you _lost_ my daughter." 

"I don't know, exactly. She wandered off and we found her with Heero."

"And you didn't think that this was worth mentioning?"

"Well, we thought it would just upset you-"

"Damn straight, I'm upset! I'm upset at all of you right now! This is rapidly becoming the worst Christmas of my life. And that includes the Eve War _and_ the Mariemaia Uprising! And _Otousan _is the name he gave her? Is that what he's going by now?"

"Actually," Duo offered uncharacteristically meekly, "'Otousan' ... is a word ... for Father." For the second time that evening, Relena's face drained of all color.

"Oh God," she whispered. "He knows. . . ." She was filled with conflicting emotions. Part of her was relieved that he hadn't appeared to confront her, part of her was furious that he didn't care enough to, another part was hoping that he _would_ show up, and yet another was praying he wouldn't. 

"Rel, its been a very long day. Maybe you really should try and get some sleep now, and worry about this in the morning. Tomorrow Hilde and Ezra, and Une and Mariemaia will be here and everything will seem a whole lot more festive."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	8. Meanwhile

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Seven_

Meanwhile. . . .

11:13 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

  


The house was silent once again. Relena had made a private phone call and then joined Hope in bed. Relieved from his post, Wu Fei had returned to the library alone. Quatre was still secure in his room for the time being. Zechs and Noin had been given a room together on the other side of the estate, and after escorting them there, Duo had gone to bed as well. The few servants still on the premises had all been accounted for, and the light guard posted around the property's perimeter was in place and on the alert. They had already had all the unexpected visitors that were expected.

Satisfied with his assessment of the grounds, Trowa redirected himself through the dining room to the closest entrance to the servants' hall. He navigated his way easily through the deserted bowels of the mansion until he found the back elevator. Punching in the authorization code, he descended to the security room. Framed by a vast array of surveillance monitors displaying every room, corridor, window, and garden, the silhouetted head did not turn to look at him. He shut the door behind him with a light click.

"I thought you'd go to Quatre first."

"Duo indicated that he wasn't ready for company."

"Wasn't ready to worry about reassuring other people, I'd guess."

"Is he still awake?" The man at the console responded by tapping a few buttons, rearranging the images until Quatre's room replaced the front gate on the main screen. Trowa seated himself in the chair beside the dark man and studied the image of Quatre lying on his stomach across the length of his bed, his hands moving indiscernibly a few centimeters from his face. "What's he doing?"

"I'm not sure. He picked something off the dresser when he came in, but he's been like that since."

"You've been watching him?"

"A precaution on the off chance he tries to do something rash."

"I don't see that as a threat."

"Can never be sure. It wouldn't be the first time his mental stability proved tenuous."

"How long have you been here?"

"Longer than you. All things considered, Quatre's security is certainly lacking."

"It's effective. He deliberately chose to leave within the system the holes the rest of us are capable of slipping through. He considers it an open invitation."

"He doesn't even monitor his surveillance."

"If you were here with intent to kill, he'd have felt you out by now, and you know it."

"Hn."

"Are you planning on letting anyone know you're here?"

"Hn."

"Why are you here, Heero?"

"I thought I could talk to Quatre. It is very hard to act on your emotions when you can't understand what they are. He would know what I'm supposed to be feeling." 

"He would tell you that you aren't supposed to feel a certain way. You're emotions are always right. It's how you act on them that makes the difference."

"She should have told me. It's inexcusable."

"Maybe. You left her with no way to contact you."

"She could put out a message for me easily, without needing a shuttle code or a phone number."

"Or you could have stayed in the first place. You felt fear, and you acted on it as you saw fit. Relena acted as well. Now it's your chance to act again. You should consider your options carefully." Trowa rose again, knowing Heero would say no more for now, and turned back towards the elevator. 

When he stepped off this time it was onto the second floor. He didn't bother returning to the domestic part of the house, instead continuing behind it through the servant's hall. It was in this manner that he managed to bypass the locked door and let himself into Quatre's room.

The young man was stretched across the bed just as he had seen minutes before, and he didn't bother to raise his head to Trowa's entrance. He could see, now, that Quatre's hands were immersing themselves within a small box, toying with the contents still beyond Trowa's view. For all he had grown up in the last years, for that moment, the lithe form lost against the enormous bed seemed just as childish and fragile as it had the first time he had seen it emerge from a Gundam.

"It's true. I'm an idiot. I never guessed. I never even suspected. And no one ... no one ever told me. . . . How could I be so stupid and careless. . . ?"

"It's harder to spot treachery, the closer it is to your heart. That's what makes the heart a liability to a man in jeopardy. If everyone had a heart like yours, peace would have been realized a long time ago."

"These were in my father's will ... I never understood why he left them to me ... or what they were..." He raised his hand high enough that Trowa could see the glint of a jewel in his palm. 

"It's a necklace." Quatre finally turned his head to shoot him a glare. Trowa merely shrugged his shoulders lightly.

"I know it's a necklace ... I know they're necklaces and rings and earrings and bracelets. I ... I was just told they were heirlooms."

"Then that's what they are. No more, no less."

"It's true, isn't it...? What Zechs said...? There was a Quatrine Winner."

"Yes."

"And you knew."

"Yes."

"You always were a thorough soldier. . . ." Quatre murmured quietly and without bitterness. He pulled himself up from the bed, leaving the box on the coverlet and crossed to the glass paneled balcony doors. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my place to know. How could it possibly be my place to tell you?" Quatre made no response, his eyelids fluttering shut even as he kept his face tilted up towards the artificial night sky. Slowly, his arms moved up his sides until he was hugging his bare chest. In a few long strides, Trowa caught up to him at the window, and in the same manner he used to soothe an agitated animal, cautiously slipped his arms over Quatre's own, pulling him back against his chest. Quatre's eyes snapped open as he automatically struggled to throw off his attacker. 

"Why are you doing this?!" He hissed as he pulled against Trowa's unyielding grip. Trowa's response came as if he were speaking to a child.

"Because you thrive on human contact." As he expected, Quatre's straining fell away into mild indignation, and finally comfort as he relaxed into Trowa's embrace and surrendered to the sense of calm he was being enveloped in.

"Bastard..." he murmured halfheartedly.

"Yes," Trowa agreed, sounding suspiciously close to cheerful, "I'm sorry, but yes." Quatre was silent a few moments.

"How did you find out?"

"When you brought me back to your desert base. I took the liberty of examining your computer system."

"And checking out my background. So it was in my father's database ... I could have hacked into it at any time..."

"You had no reason to go looking."

"Why wasn't I ever told...?"

"That I can't answer. Your father must have had his own reasons to keep it a secret."

"What happened to her, Trowa...?"

"She died."

"Of what?"

"When you were born..."

"Ah. It all makes sense now, doesn't it. No wonder I could never be the pacifist my father wanted ... I was a murderer from the day I was born..."

"I don't think so." When Quatre remained silent, he continued. "Considering the medical records, she had to have known the pregnancy would be fatal. You didn't kill her, she made the choice herself. She thought your life more important than her own and she died to let you live. You heard what Zechs said; she went out of her way to give you life."

"To give my father his damned heir..."

"Because she loved you."

"You don't know that."

"But I believe it. It's the sort of choice you'd make yourself." For this, Quatre had no response. Without protest, he allowed himself to be drawn away from the window. He watched idly as Trowa moved the jewelry box to the bedside table and drew back the blankets. Exhausted both emotionally and physically, he let Trowa guide him back into the sheets. He was mildly grateful when Trowa climbed in beside him, enshrouding him with the calm security of his presence once again, and fell quickly asleep with only an annoyed mutter of "Ena be hib'bec, ya Trowa."

Alerted by the sounds of voices, Relena slipped away from Hope's body and padded to the doorway. She hadn't wanted to disturb Quatre, but apparently someone had. As quietly as she could, she cracked open the door and peered through. She was startled to see Quatre in much the same position with Trowa that she had been in with him just two mornings ago.

"He's alright." Trowa answered her unasked question. She blushed lightly, and then stepped further through the door.

"Are you going to stay the night?"

"He'll sleep better this way, with someone's emotions beside his own to comfort him."

"Goodnight, then."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	9. The Morning After

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Eight_

The Morning After

December 20th, 8:25 AM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

  


Hope knew from experience that waking Mommy up in the morning before she was ready to be woken up could be a deceptively dangerous undertaking. Judging by the bluish color under Mommy's eyes, she wasn't ready to be woken up. This decision made, she wriggled carefully out from under Mommy's arm and slid off the bed. She first tiptoed over to the window, looking out over the gardens in the morning light. As well as she knew that it wasn't real, the L4 colony was so impeccably maintained that there wasn't the slightest glitch in the holographic sky. It was even going to snow on Christmas Eve. Mister Trowa had told her so. She was somewhat doubtful, considering how warm the air was, but, she had to remind herself, Quatre controlled the colony and so Quatre controlled the weather. She really didn't know how he was going to do it though.

Withdrawing her attention from the statues and birdcages highlighting the lush fantasy land below her, she crossed quietly over to the door leading back to Quatre's room, hoping he might be awake. She was surprised to see that Mister Trowa was there as well, but if Grandma's shows were any indication, such things were not unusual for grownups. Carefully, she slipped past the door, and, remembering Quatre's trick the night before, tiptoed curiously over to the bedside to be sure they were asleep. One green eye opened to meet her. 

Not knowing what else to say, she simply whispered, "Hi." 

At the sound of her voice, light as it was, Quatre's eyelids fluttered open as well. He made no move to raise his head, however, and after seeing her, simply let his eyelids slide shut again. Trowa smirked at her and winked, shifting his shoulders to unsettle the blonde, despite incoherently mumbled protests. She giggled in response while Trowa continued to sit up, disturbing him further until he had no choice but to submit to wakefulness, glaring blearily at nothing in particular.

"Next time, you can just leave once I'm asleep ... I already have an alarm."

"Masochist." Quatre quirked a brow at the accusation and snorted, glancing around for the clock, momentarily ignoring Hope's presence.

"Breakfast is served at nine ... we both need to get up. . . ."

"Good. You should eat something."

"Don't start, I don't argue well until after I shower."

"Why do you insist on being a zealot?"

"I am _not _a zealot," he defended, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"When it's in sacrifice of your health, you're a zealot." Trowa moved to get up as well.

"Or a martyr," Hope offered. The two men glanced down at her as if just remembering she was there.

"Someone agrees with me," Trowa nodded at her approvingly.

"I'm not on my deathbed, you know. I'm a healthy young man who isn't going to get the vapors over missing a couple of meals. And neither of you have the credentials to dispute that point."

"I don't need to be a doctor to recognize when you need a few vitamins."

"I can wait for the iftar."

"That's at least twelve hours from now."

"After sundown."

"We're on a colony. There is no sundown." Quatre responded to the statement with a huff. "Well, there isn't. I could always pirate the weather controls so you can have your," he hesitated for a moment, glancing back at Hope, "darn sundown."

"I would be very much amused to see you _try_. This is becoming tedious."

"I won the last time, that should tell you something."

"The last time you 'won' I was out of three hours of surgery and lacking a few liters of blood, it would have been dangerously impractical."

"Shhh!" Hope held her finger up to her mouth urgently. "You'll wake up Mommy," she explained in a loud whisper.

*

Heero accepted the proffered sandwich after a brief scrutiny. "Appreciate it."

"I thought as much. You've been living off protein bars, I assume? You can only skulk around back here undetected for so long." Wu Fei crossed his arms and turned his head to scan the array of screens for a moment. "Zechs and Noin?"

"Left at 0600. Opted to relocate to a hotel for the remainder of their stay. They may or may not approach Quatre again; they definitely intend to see Relena."

"Have you slept at all?"

"Of course."

"In the last twelve hours?" He was met by a resounding silence, and nodded. "Are there any other developments worth noting?"

"Duo's wife and ... child ... are scheduled to dock in roughly one hour. Dorothy, Une, and Mariemaia have just entered the colony cluster, so we can anticipate their arrival by noon. Sally is picking up Catherine from L3-G8482 and should dock sometime between 1300 and 1600. Trowa spent the night with Quatre and they and Hope are awake now. I haven't had the sound on, so their course of conversation is unknown. Relena is still asleep, and Duo is foraging for food."

"Is that all?" Wu Fei pressed, with a note of sarcasm.

"The chambermaid in charge of the south wing is having an affair with the grounds keeper."

"I'm sure Quatre will be glad to know."

"Zechs and Noin have a child as of two years, eight months, and fourteen days ago."

"And you, as of four years, three months, and sixteen days ago."

"Plus five hours and thirty-nine minutes," he added after a flickering gaze across a computer monitor for the Universal Time.

"Good, you've caught up with the rest of the class."

"I took it upon myself to do my homework." A cursory glance across the monitors prompted the clicking of a few keys, rearranging the images again so that Relena's room was now the one on the main screen. Trowa had just entered, led by Hope, and seemed to be trying to rummage through the child's suitcase without waking the mother. Alone, he might have been successful, but Hope's input on what clothing he ought to select was more verbal than necessary. To her credit, Relena took the man's presence, with her undressed child, in her bedroom in stride.

"Maxwell's on the move." Wu Fei pointed out suddenly. A bit more tapping and the images moved in such a way as to enable them to observe Duo's entry to Quatre's room.

*

"Quat?" He'd given up knocking relatively quickly, simply pressing past the door into Quatre's inner sanctum. Never mind that he'd locked him out the night before. Shinigami was in top form. A quick glance around told him the room was empty. Soft voices from the mistress' chamber, but not Quatre's. Running water from the bathroom. He gravitated towards that. He was eager to see Quatre's bathroom again, anyway. "Heeeeeeeeeey, Q-what the hell did you do?!" Was his dejected greeting to Quatre as the braided wonder broke through yet another door.

"Duo?!" Came the startled, and somewhat flustered voice from behind the textured glass of the shower door. Duo wasn't paying attention. Everywhere he looked it was ... normal. Well, as normal as anything ever was in a Winner home. Marble and gold; elegant but tasteful. "Duo, what are you doing in my bathroom?"

"Wondering what you did in here since last year! My God!"

"I redecorated."

"_Obviously_. Why?"

"Well, your last visit called to my attention the inappropriateness of the decor."

"But it was _cool._"

"It was designed before I was _born. _It was meant for a _child._"

"Well, Ezra's a child."

"But it's _my _bathroom. I saved the tub, in case you want to take it back to L2."

"With the fixtures?"

"Yes, with the fixtures."

"Hilde'll kill me. Can you make it a gift for Ezra? She'll be obligated out of politeness."

"I don't know if I'd be comfortable using her manners against her...."

"But it's so effective! Think of all the stuff _you've_ gotten roped into."

"What are you doing in here?" came a third voice from the doorway. Quatre groaned audibly.

"What is this, a space port?! Isn't there anywhere else we can congregate besides my shower? Or should I just install a com-link in-"

"Good morning, Quatre," the third voice interrupted.

"Heero. Thrilled as I am that you've decided to reveal yourself, I wish you'd chosen a more opportune time."

"He can be a real bitch in the morning," Duo not-quite whispered.

"And you derive a sick pleasure in observing the transformation." Heero and Duo turned in a synchronized movement to regard Wu Fei's arrival to the conversation. There was a thud from the shower.

"Quatre? You okay?" There was another thud.

"It is unwise to pick fights with walls. They tend to win." Wu Fei advised.

"Not to mention, banging your head against the tiles'll give you a really nasty headache." Duo added.

"Confucius would be proud of such an epiphany," Wu Fei responded tartly. "And what is all this about bathtubs?"

"Oh you shoulda seen it, Q had the most incredible bathroom. I mean, the sailboats on the walls were kinda dorky, but, like, the sink? It had a dolphin for a faucet. You turned it's flippers for hot and cold. The bathtub though, that was absolutely wicked. Clear, hollow fiberglass, blue around the outside, and stuffed with sunken pirate ships and mermaids and fish and all kinds of crap."

"The last time he visited, he insisted on carrying Ezra up here for every bath," Quatre added dryly. 

"The toilet seat had a turtle cover. And the shower head was sculpted to look like a rock formation, so it had this freaky waterfall effect."

"No wonder your servants still refer to this as the nursery, Quatre."

"Thank you for your insight, Wu Fei. If there had been a child after me, that title would have been passed on, but I'm the youngest and I'm stuck with it. Is there anything else you all would like to humiliate me with?"

"Well, it does kinda make me wonder what the rest of your room looked like. You know, when you were little."

"It was an enchanted forest." Three pairs of eyes turned back to the doorway. And Quatre groaned from the shower. "Fairies and knights and unicorns, that sort of thing." Trowa shrugged. "There are photographs."

"And the castle. Please, don't forget the castle. Complete with drawbridge folding out from the wall and Rapunzel's braid from a tower. Now that we have thoroughly examined the roots of my overly romantic mentality, are we quite finished?"

"You had a castle?"

"I am shutting off the water and getting out now."

"Could you walk into the thing or was it just flat?"

"I mean it, I'm getting out." The sound of the water stopped.

"But the enchanted forest, is it still in there? Under the paper and whatnot?" His only answer was the squeak of the glass door as Quatre, blushing furiously beneath his skin but too proud to let it seep into his face, stepped out. Wu Fei held out a towel quietly, which Quatre snatched and wrapped around his waist, ignoring Duo's comment about natural blondes.

*

"Quatre will be joining us shortly," Trowa directed towards Relena, while settling into the chair on the right of their host's empty place. "He's at prayer now." Duo and Wu Fei nodded a bit from their seats and Relena followed their lead, while Hope was infinitely more interested in the lavish breakfast being laid out before them. She giggled as Duo nearly stood to lean over the table, plate in hand, to scoop up some of everything he could reach. He chatted amiably about nothing in particular as he then took it upon himself to load up Wu Fei and Trowa's plates for them as well. Hope was surprised to see that neither of them protested it. She then realized he was looking at her.

"Well, how about it, sweet thing? Gonna pass your plate over? What do you like? I'm partial to the waffles myself, cause you can load 'em up with all the stuff you aren't supposed to have at breakfast. I ... mean _fruit_, of course, Rel." He winked at her nonetheless and added a modest scoop of whipped cream to the veritable fruit salad he'd created. "How about you, Lena? Eggs? You look like you could use the protein. Trust me, I'm a dietary genius. Even Stone-face and Justice-boy submit to my expertise."

"I leave it in your capable hands, Duo." Again Hope was surprised. Mommy was usually very picky about her nutritional needs. Duo flashed a grin and quickly returned her plate with more fried food than Hope had ever seen in one meal. Somehow, things seemed very different here. 

Grownups, she had learned, had a way of forgetting the presence of a small child while within the company of friends, if she were to keep quiet and appear not to be listening. She set about making herself appear absorbed with her food, and therefore invisible, to observe the conversation.

"What would you recommend for Quatre?" Trowa was saying.

"Oh, heck no! I'm not jumping on the 'force-feed-Blondie' wagon. You two want to bicker about it? Fine. But leave me out of it. As long as he isn't about to keel over from starvation, it's his business."

"Under normal circumstances, I would keep out of it too, but these are _not_ normal circumstances. You've seen him, he looks pale already."

"Iron deficiency. In any case, he didn't look too pale this morning." Wu Fei snorted at that and Hope wondered what it meant.

"That was from the hot water," Trowa stated simply.

"Really? I could have sworn it was the audience." 

"Drop it, Maxwell," Wu Fei commanded. Duo shrugged and shoved a fork-full into his mouth. At the same time Hope heard the footsteps behind her and turned to her right to see Quatre sink into his seat on the other side of Mommy. She chirruped a good morning at him and was rewarded with a tired, but sunny smile. The door leading to the kitchen opened again and she looked up curiously, wondering if they were going to add _more _to the table. Instead, a glass of water was poured for Quatre, to which he nodded, and a small plate of pills was placed before him, to which he raised an eyebrow. A sort of staring contest seemed to ensue between him and Trowa while the room remained oddly silent. After what seemed to Hope like forever, Quatre scooped up what she assumed were vitamins in one hand and quickly swallowed them. Duo began to chatter again, seemingly signifying the end of the battle.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	10. New Arrivals

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Nine_

New Arrivals

9:55 AM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

  


Duo grinned maniacally as Ezra rushed out of the car ahead of Hilde at a dead run. He began to open his arms, only to watch his adoring son pounce the man next to him instead.

"Uncle Quatre! Did you get my present?" Duo raised his brows while Quatre only laughed, lifting the boy up against his chest.

"Of course. I told you I'd take care of it, didn't I? It's all ready for Christmas." That answer caused a flutter of dread in his stomach. Bad enough Ezra was hitting his 'rich uncle' up for gifts, but it seemed Quatre was going along with it. He had a horrible feeling that if Ezra had thought to ask _Quatre _for it, he might end up having to build an addition on the house to store the damn thing. He was suddenly a little angry with Quatre for not consulting him about whatever 'present' he was planning to spoil him with. He repressed the urge to smack his friend upside the head while he was holding his son. Instead, he turned his attention to his last resort for affection. Hilde was making her way daintily out of the backseat of the limousine, and she flashed him a smile so overly exuberant it planted a new seed of worry in his mind. When Hilde got _that _look, God only knew what she'd set her mind on.

"OK, Mister 'Everybody-loves-me.' Give me back my son. If anyone's going to buy his love it'll be me." Ezra squealed as he was pried out of Quatre's arms and found himself staring down the length of his father's braid after being flung over one shoulder. His view of the world became jarred as Duo began walking, and he giggled, grabbing hold of the braid in one hand and waving to Quatre with the other.

*

"Miss Darlian?" Relena looked up from her somewhat futile attempt to clean the syrup spots off of Hope's shirt to the girl in the doorway.

"Yes?"

"There's a call for you, Ma'am. I don't think it's business; it's on Master Quatre's private line. Would you like to take it in his study?"

"Thank you, that would be fine." She smiled, standing, and dropped the washrag in the sink. "Nadey, you may go downstairs and play, but don't wander around too far. When Ezra arrives, be nice, and stay out of trouble, alright? I'll be down soon." Hope nodded, glad to be free of being cleaned, and skipped out before Relena could change her mind. Relena nodded slightly at Quatre's servant and then followed her back to the site of the previous evening's fallout. "Thank you, I can open the call myself." The girl looked uncertain for a moment, but then bowed a little and left the room. 

With a weary sigh, Relena dropped into Quatre's leather desk chair and simply sat for a moment before tapping the vidphone. She was met by the visage of a well groomed woman in her late thirties looking grimly into the screen.

"Lady Khadija, thank you for contacting me so quickly."

"It is not often that I am called on by the Vice Foreign Minister. However, considering where you requested I should direct my call, I can assume that this has little to do with me, and something to do with my brother."

"Yes, I'm afraid so. As the matriarch of the Winner family, you seemed the only appropriate person to call."

"Is it true then? What the tabloids are printing up?"

"No, it has nothing to do with that. I wanted to ask you about Quatrine." Relena watched the composed woman's eyes widen a bit.

"About ... Quatrine?"

"Yes, Quatrine. As well as my own mother. Surely _you_ remember what happened."

"Does Quatre know about this?"

"We were both harshly informed of the scenario last night, but we do not know the specifics. Quatre was particularly shaken, as you can imagine. I don't know why this was kept a secret from him, but it is your duty as the head of the family to tell him the truth."

"You don't know what you're asking. Father had us all swear we would never burden him with Mother's memory."

"But he is already burdened. Do you honestly believe it could be in his best interest for him not to have the closure of knowing who his mother was? Why was he never told?"

"Our father was a compassionate man, Miss Darlian. He did not want to indulge a gap by singling Quatre out as different from the rest of us. He wished to maintain equality between his children. Nonetheless, Quatre was an angry child, resentful of his place in the world. While I know a few of my sisters discussed telling him, it was the general consensus that it might well hurt him even more to know, as he would be inclined to embrace the guilt of causing her death."

"But you must agree that circumstances have changed since then."

"Very well, Ms. Darlian. I will see about making arrangements to meet with my brother."

*

"Hey! Lookit this one. It's not all numbery." Ezra surveyed the disc Hope was displaying. He couldn't read it; the words were too big, but they were hand written and not the official type of security records. And she was right; there were no numerical sequences denoting its significance.

"That's a good one, put it in."

"You think Quatre'll be mad...?"

"Nah. I've never seen him get mad at anything. And they aren't secure files or anything, or they wouldn't be in the parlor." Hope nodded her acquiescence and rose up off her knees to slip the disc into the television hookup. They were instantly met by a view of the room they were sitting in, full of people they mostly recognized, accompanied by familiar voices. Hope suddenly burst out laughing and pointing at the screen.

"Your daddy's got hair on his face!" Ezra only scowled at her as she continued to laugh at Duo's big-bad-goatee phase. The fashion statement had sported a brief run before Hilde put an end to it, one way or the other. Eventually, her amusement dwindled as she watched the proceedings. Then she squealed. "Hey! It's you!" Ezra looked and sure enough saw his own short self toddling on screen, clutching his mothers hand.

_"Oh honestly, Duo! He's two! What do you expect him to do with Twister?"_

_ "Come on, Babe, he loves watching other people making fools of themselves. And think how much fun we can have with it."_

Ezra nudged Hope and she nodded distastefully, skipping ahead on the file.

_"Screw you guys! This is the last time I play tag-team Twister with The Acrobat and Yoga-Boy!" Duo flexed painfully, his body arched across the mat, balanced on one arm while the other stretched backwards to press even with his crossed legs. Quatre was very nearly beneath him, legs stretched to opposite ends of the mat and body lying forward, also on one hand, but he seemed perfectly comfortable and more than a little smug. _

_"It was your idea, Duo." Trowa pointed out calmly. Wu Fei nodded before giving the spinner a bored flick._

_ "Left hand, red."_

_ "Noooooo!" Quatre and Hilde were laughing as Duo protested. "That isn't humanly possible! Normal people don't bend that way!"_

_ "If it's too much for your manhood to withstand, Duo, why don't you tag Hilde?" Trowa suggested offhandedly._

_ "What's that supposed to mean, Barton?!"_

_ "Well then _move_ already." Scowling, Duo bent his knees, slowly lowering his hips before attempting to throw his weight forward long enough to reposition his hand. He failed. Quatre yelped as Duo collapsed on top of him, and Trowa smirked slightly as he rose to pull himself out of the tangle of limbs._

"That's funny." Ezra glanced at Hope only to see her scrutinizing the screen. "What?"

"Something's funny." 

"I just said it was funny."

"Not that kind of funny. Strange funny. Command: disc repeat play."

*

"Quatre." The blonde looked up from the reports littering his desk to face Heero.

"Out in the daylight? Couldn't Relena discover you? Or do you want-no...are you ready to be discovered?"

"You should leave other people's minds to themselves."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"The last three years of your schedule are dotted with a pattern of two week intervals when your whereabouts are completely unaccounted for."

"What, exactly, does my private life have to do with you?"

"What are you doing, Quatre?"

"Nothing particularly subversive."

"You're a terrible liar."

"But a wonderful actor."

"I've already cross referenced the dates with the Preventer records, Maganac records, and data on your family."

"I'd expect no less of you."

"What do you have to be so evasive about?" Quatre offered a smile of concession and waved his hand to the side of his desk, gesturing for Heero to sit down. He sat back in his own chair a moment, steepling his fingers thoughtfully before speaking.

"The average human uses a maximum of ten percent of their brain, am I correct? What was my measured level in Wing Zero's pilot data?"

"Sandrock averaged you primarily at roughly fourteen percent, before the Zero incident. Just before destroying the colony, your brain activity peaked at thirty-two percent. When the Zero system was implemented in Sandrock, you climbed back to twenty-two. After, you were recorded as going as high as eighteen."

"And the others?"

"Duo peaked at nineteen; Trowa, briefly, at twenty-three in the instant he regained his memories; Wu Fei at seventeen; and myself at twenty-three."

"Have you ever wondered, Heero, what human beings are really capable of? What abilities that unused ninety percent is hiding?"

"Go on."

"Throughout history there have always been people with unusual gifts. Extra sensory perception, telekinesis, telepathy. They've been revered and persecuted: oracles, witches, psychics. Things science couldn't account for. Every human being has the capacity within the unused portion of their brain; the capabilities are all there. I've been learning to use them. Training, if you will. On my own I can now press as high as thirty-seven. I was always ... sensitive. Zero heightened that along with everything else when I succumbed to it; I think that may be why it affected me so much worse than the rest of you. But once those blocks were open, there was nothing to keep me from being able to access my capabilities, and I've learned more and more how to use and control them."

"You're saying you've been made more intelligent?"

"No, intelligence has nothing to do with it. For all my brain activity has risen, my I.Q. hasn't been affected at all. Dorothy and Duo are the only bonafide geniuses. I'm at roughly the same level as you, Trowa and Wu Fei."

"What exactly have you managed to do?"

"Stop, for a moment, thinking of the world as solid. There is no real physical: everything, solid and un-solid, is made up of atoms: tiny, identical particles that form what we perceive by their patterns and weight. This is all that the entire universe is made up of: particles and energy -- matter and antimatter. The human brain is capable of routing energy, thus affecting and manipulating the very elements that make up the universe. 

"It's all a rearranging of ions and isotopes," he explained dismissively, waving his hand. "Thoughts and feelings are just electricity as well, and the energy making up the brain can come in contact with it and translate it."

"Show me." Quatre nodded and looked across his desk. Heero followed his gaze to what seemed to be some sort of paperweight; a metal block with four strips of bent metal balanced in a pinwheel formation over a tall wire. As Quatre's jaw hardened and a line of concentration appeared between his brows, the spokes slowly began to rotate on their pillar.

*

"That's it!"

"What is? I don't see anything any you've been playing it over and over forever!" Ezra lifted his head from where he'd sprawled across the floor in boredom.

"Look at Quatre's face."

"Huh?"

"Lookit!" She tapped the screen. "His face is all tight."

"So? Look at how he's standing, you'd make faces too."

"But he was fine a minute ago, and he was standing the same way. Now watch." She let the disk play a few seconds before pausing it again. "Did you see it?"

"I didn't see anything."

"Watch the spinner." Again she backed up the image, and again she let it play.

"Is it supposed to go that slow?"

"Nope. It's supposed to get slower and stop, but it just got slower and kept going a little."

"Maybe Uncle Wu was holding it on a slant?"

"But it's sitting on the floor. Quatre did it. If it'd stayed on yellow, your daddy could've gotten up, but he kept it moving to red so he'd fall."

"That's impossible, he'd have to use magic."

"So why can't Quatre use magic?"

"Cause he's my uncle! Normal people don't use magic."

"What about Santa?"

"Well he's _Santa_."

"Maybe Quatre's Santa."

"That's just dumb. He looks nothing like Santa. I know, I've seen him in three malls so far," he rebutted smugly. "He doesn't even _believe_ in Christmas."

"What if it's a cover up! He could be pretending to not believe so that no one'll 'spect him!"

"Why would someone pretend to pray five times a day just so that no one would 'spect him? Why wouldn't he just pretend to be Jewish? It'd be a whole lot easier than pretending to be a Muslim."

"OK...what about an elf?"

"What do elves have to do with people pretending a religion?"

"No! I mean ... what if Quatre _is_ an elf? They have magic too, don't they?"

Ezra stared at her blankly and then narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "I'm listening."

"Or maybe a fairy!"

He suddenly looked stricken. "Mommy told Daddy not to call him that ever again!"

"Maybe she was afraid you'd find out!"

"So how do we check if he's a fairy?"

"We could ask him...?"

"Don't be stupid."

"Well then, we'll have to make him use his powers."

"You mean play twister?"

"Um ... no. I don't think your daddy'd be willing to play again. He knows about Quatre. You said so."

"That's 'cuz my daddy is really smart," Ezra beamed proudly. "One time when Mommy called him stupid, he said that he had an I.Q. of two hundred and twenty."

"What's an I.Q.?"

"I dunno, but it's more important than getting your tongue stuck in a 'lectric mixer."

*

"Hilde what is this all about?" Duo grumbled from within a darkened bathroom. "You know what they're gonna think we're doing in here!"

"That's never bothered you before."

"Yeah, but we were actually _doing_ it then!" Hilde flipped the switch on the wall behind her, illuminating the small tiled room. 

"And here I thought you'd appreciate me giving you an early Christmas present."

His eyes widened. "You mean that thing with the-"

"No. Never again. We've been over that." His face fell like a little boy dragged out of the candy store. "Come on Duo! This is a _good_ thing. Don't ruin it! Again!"

"Hey! I resent that! What 'again'?"

"Well the last time you damn near choked yourself!" Duo went pale.

"Uh ... Hilde?"

"What?"

"You wouldn't happen to be..." he stammered for a moment. "Hungry for sardines or anything wouldjya?"

Hilde's eyes narrowed. "I hate sardines. You know I can't eat anything that stares at me." Duo's shoulders sagged a little. "But if you happened to be using that question as a 'round-about way of asking if I'm pregnant," she smirked, "then yes." Duo stared at her in stunned silence for a few moments, then his face broke into a huge grin and he hooked his arms about her waist and spun her around laughing almost psychotically. 

"You mean we...? You're...? Oh my god!" He set her down again and kissed her mouth, her cheek, her neck - anything exposed. "I - I can't believe it! You're sure? You're absolutely certain? You went to a doctor? Oh my god! Hilde, I love you." It was Hilde's turn to giggle as her husband showered her with kisses again. But that nagging at the back of her mind came back, and she put her hand over Duo's mouth to quell his excitement momentarily.

"Duo- Duo we need to really talk about this." Duo calmed down at the serious note in her voice. She smiled reassuringly at the worry in his face, "Before you start thinking up names," she chided with a hint of melancholy, "we need to sit down and seriously decide if I am going to carry this baby full term." The realization finally hit Duo. And with it came the memories of their last ordeal.

Duo took a breath to collect himself and then said with a brief glance at the surrounding decor, "I think this conversation would be better conducted somewhere else." Hilde nodded her acquiescence and the pair slunk out of the hallway bathroom and to their designated suite of rooms.

*

"He's gone."

"Yes, I expected as much." Quatre looked up from his sheet music, quietly pulling the cover shut over the alabaster keys with an air of finality before turning his full attention to Trowa. "He won't make it very far."

"You expect he'll come back."

"I am certain that he'll share Christmas dinner with us. But it's out of our hands now; it's a decision he has to make alone."

"You know where he went."

"I have an inkling."

"And he told you he'd be back?"

"Not in so many words."

"Playing the mental pick-pocket again, are we?"

"Is it too late to run away with the circus?"

"For who?" He allowed a satisfied smirk to flicker across his mouth as Quatre offered him a disapproving glare. "Well," he continued thoughtfully, "We already have a fortune teller. You'd make a half-decent contortionist, but I'm not sure you'd be comfortable in the costume. In front of other people. But what it really all comes down to is that you'd have to take turns cooking."

"Just dash all my dreams, why don't you..."

"You never wanted to run away with the circus."

"That's not true, I was big on running away with the circus. I was big on running away, period. Of course, ideally, I wanted to run away with the Spanish Armada but I realized the impracticality of that when I was seven or so."

"The Spanish Armada?" Trowa raised a brow as he shifted his weight to the other foot.

"Oh, be quiet. At least it wasn't the Russian Ballet." He stood up carefully, stepping away from the piano bench.

"That one crossed your mind?"

"I don't have to answer that. Though I did try to run off with a small theatre troupe when I was eleven. Fancied I could be an actor. Father stopped bringing me backstage to greet performers after that." Trowa watched him a moment, realizing he was serious, and then shook his head slightly. 

"You had, hands down, the most bizarre childhood."

"Yes, well, I often had a lot of time on my hands."

"Next thing you know you'll be telling me that you tried to raise a family of squirrels in your closet."

"Who told you about that!?"

"Or that you wanted to be the Scarlet Pimpernel."

"Stop talking to the help."

"Or tried to buy yourself cosmetic surgery-"

"Out!"

*

"So this is what It's down to, huh...abort, artificial womb, or take the chance and ride it out. I guess that brings it down to two, really, cause there's no way in hell I'm gambling your life."

"Well, then, that means there's only one choice, isn't there."

*

Three Hours Later

"He used to work for me," the elder girl confided to her two protégées as Wu Fei spared them a brief nod on his way down the hall.

"Why?" a small male voice piped up behind her.

"What do you mean, 'why?'"

"I mean, why'd Uncle Fei work for _you?_"

"When _I _was your age, _I _had already been chosen to rule the Earth Sphere."

"Then why don't you?" Hope contributed politely. The red-head, a worldly woman of twelve, tossed her head haughtily at their ignorance.

"_Because_, I made the world better by stepping down. And anyway, I was in the hospital so I would have missed my own coronation."

"Why were you in the hospital?"

"Because I was shot," she finished with a note of pride.

"What's 'shot'?" Hope asked innocently. It had a dramatic effect in breaking down the older girl's majesty.

"What do you _mean_, 'what's shot'?! Soldiers get shot in a war, it's what happens when people fight for what they believe in. That's why people _die_ in wars and why we don't have them anymore." She huffed superiorly and Ezra's eyes widened as she untucked her blouse and began to undo the lower buttons, displaying her scar. "That," she uttered importantly, "Is where I was shot. I was in a wheelchair for months."

"Oh." Hope whispered meekly. It hadn't really answered her question, but she wasn't overly inspired to set the girl on another tirade.

"My dad got shot at too," Ezra piped up enthusiastically, "But he was so good, no one could ever hit him."

"That's because he was a Gundam pilot. Wu Fei was _my _Gundam pilot, and they're the greatest warriors that ever lived."

"What's a Gundam?" Hope whispered at Ezra.

"Back when people fought and stuff they used mobile suits, like the ones they use for construction and stuff. And the Gundams were the most powerful ones ever. Daddy had one, and Uncle Wuffie, and Uncle Quatre, and Uncle Trowa, and Uncle Heero too."

"Uncle Hero...?"

"Yeah. I've only met him once or twice though, when I was a baby or something. He's not around a lot. He's always off doing important Preventer stuff."

"Like ... protecting the world. . . ?"

"Yeah, I guess so. That's what the Preventers do, mostly."

"And he fought in the war?"

"Yep. Daddy and all my uncles were like a whole army by themselves. They made the wars stop for good."

"Like ... white knights and stuff?"

"Yes! Just like white knights!" Mariemaia stepped in with enthusiasm. "And Heero was the one who killed me."

"You're not dead, you're right here."

"Metaphorically!" was the exasperated retort.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	11. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Ten_

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

12:00 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

"Understood. I will be there to pick you up within two hours. Smoke out." The monitor flickered off at the click of a button and the chair squeaked as it swivelled to permit its occupant release.

"Whatchya doin?" Wu Fei was startled to find himself faced with his former commandress in chief smiling innocently up at him. 

"That is none of your business, Girl. Has Lady Une not taught you against sneaking up on your elders?"

"Oooo ... why so secretive, Wu Fei? Are you trying to slip a lover into the party under Quatre's nose? Will you make her climb up the trellis?" Wu Fei choked slightly and felt the blood rush to his face despite himself.

"You are entirely too young to be speaking in such a manner. It is not the place of a young lady to be making allusions to that sort of impropriety."

"If you say so," she answered flatly. "So who were you chatting with? It seemed a very terse discourse. Having a bit of a lover's quarrel, were we?"

"It is none of your concern and I would advise you to drop the subject. And what _we?_"

"What's wrong? You don't think a twelve year old is capable of grasping your 'adult' problems?" Mariemaia rolled her eyes. "I've heard that line a few times before. So how'd you screw up with Sally this time?"

"What!?" Wu Fei roared. "Will you get out of here! Couldn't you be telling the other juvenile delinquents how you took over the world instead of harassing me on matters you have no involvement in?" And with that, a less-composed-than-he-would-have-liked Wu Fei grasped her by the shoulders and guided her out the door of his room. When he finally released her, she stood outside his doorway, straightened her clothes, and more than a little smugly removed herself and her well-bred poise; off to find someone else to vex. 

"Mother says I'm not to discuss global domination anymore ..." she murmured absently to herself, making her way down the hall. As she approached the stairway, she was ambushed by the household's two youngest guests, effectively knocking both her, as well as themselves, to the carpeted floor with noises of varying degrees of surprise. They had been fleeing, she realized, as the booming of heavier footsteps made their way up the stairwell, soon accompanied by a villainous "Mwahahahaha!" as their pursuer spied the small heap of tangled limbs. 

Before she could extricate herself, Duo swooped down upon them, attacking with skilled fingers from which no one was spared. Amid shrieks and giggles, pleas for mercy were choked out, and finally the braided wonder relented, positioning the breadth of his body above them on widespread arms and knees, effectively keeping all three of them huddled together, pinned beneath him.

"Now then," he began jovially, "Just what were you all up to this morning, and how did Mommy end up lying down for a nap in a bed with jell-o in the sheets?" The two in question giggled nervously, while Mariemaia began to struggle.

"_I_ had nothing to do with it!" Mariemaia spat with an accompanying scowl, resentful of the humiliating position, as well as being implicated with the four-year-olds. Carefully, Duo knelt up, freeing all three from his bodily prison without letting them escape his reach.

"Ezra did it!" Hope squealed, scooting backwards until her back bumped the wall, watching with delight even as Ezra scowled at her, mouthing the word 'traitor.'

"Did you put jell-o in Mommy and Daddy's bed?"

"No!" he shook his head defiantly, crossing arms stubbornly over his chest.

"Uh-huh, did you put jell-o in _a _bed?" He seemed less sure of himself.

"Well ... it wasn't _Mommy's_ bed ... at the time. . . ."

"You know better than to ruin Uncle Quat's things."

"But it was _Marie's _bed!" he stopped abruptly, mid whine, glancing apprehensively from father to self-proclaimed-sovereign.

"It's Marie_maia_, you little peon! And what do you mean, _my _bed!"

"Well, it was when _we _got the jell-o!" he stressed the 'we', shooting a glare at Hope, "B'fore Mommy asked Uncle Quatre to change the rooms around, dunno why she wants ta be closer to the kitchen anyway, but then we'd already done it!"

"And why would you want to put jell-o in Marie's bed anyway, little hell-raiser?" Duo gave him a poke in the ribs.

"Marie_maia_!" Her cries went unheard.

"Cause she put a daddy-longlegs in my salad at thanksgiving." Duo couldn't help but understand the simple logic in the argument ... and it worried him. Thankfully, he was reprieved from any immediate action.

"Hark! the Q-man cometh. You can explain to _him _why he now has a very grumpy guest and a very stained set of sheets." With surprising grace, Duo scrambled to his feet, hanging on to Ezra's shirt in one hand. "And what does he mean, you put a spider in his salad?"

"It was a Pholcidae."

"What?"

"Pholcus phalangioides." Offered a new, somewhat confused voice as Quatre took stock of the situation lain out before him.

"Ah, yes ... good ol' Pholcus phalangioides. Torn hundreds of legs offa them. Here, Ezra has something he'd like to tell you."

"Um. . . ."

*

Two Hours Later

She flipped a page absently and smiled at what the glossy paper had effectively hidden. When she finished committing each pigmented pixel of the photograph to memory, she began reading the article, only to toss the magazine quickly under the dresser when her mother knocked on the door and without pausing for a response, entered the room. Mothers _never_ waited for permission.

"Mariemaia?" Lady Une poked her head into the room and found her daughter lying on her stomach, feet up in the air, legs crossed at the ankles, and staring up at her innocently.

"Yes, Mother?" she answered with a smile.

"Just wondering where you went off to. Are you all unpacked?"

"Yes, Mother. I just finished and was about to go downstairs."

"And do what?"

"I promised I would tell Ezra and Hope a story in exchange for them acting civilly to me for the remainder of the trip."

"The jell-o."

"Oh, you've heard about the ... debacle, I see."

"And what story were you planning on telling them?"

"Just some fairy-tale," Mariemaia responded nonchalantly with a wave of her hand.

"NOT Little Red-Riding-Hood."

"But-!"

"No. It had better be G-rated; they're only four." Mariemaia's smile turned into a scowl and she stuck her tongue out at her mother's back as she left. When she was again alone, she stretched her arm under the dresser with a "hmph," felt around for a moment before retrieving her magazine, then quickly thumbed back to the article on South American soccer teams.

*

Half an Hour Later

"A-ha!" Duo's eyes sparkled gleefully as he retrieved the last can of his favorite soda from it's hiding place in the back of the refrigerator and slipped through the rear kitchen door. 

He was walking down the hall with his head tilted back to savor the last bit of carbonated sugar-water when he heard a small squeal from the door he had just passed. Duo paused in mid step, then walked backwards as words started drifting into his ears.

"But the shoe ... sisters ... and then ... pigsty...." He recognized the voice as Mariemaia's but he couldn't decipher the story from the bits and pieces audible through the door. Duo placed his free hand on the door handle, turning it gingerly, and pushed the door open silently. "...so to make the shoe fit, the sisters were ordered to take the meat-cleaver and chop off their heels and toes since they would have no need to walk once one of them was queen-" Mariemaia was cut off with a shriek from Hope as she clamped her hands over her ears and started chanting "I can't hear you! I can't hear you!" to herself.

"What on Earth are you telling them? First of all it's still light out, so you have no business reciting horror stories. You are old enough to know the basic fundamentals of scary story telling; rule number one - it must be after dark, with the obvious exception of power outages where the teller preys on the natural human fear of lost control. Now if you were in a particularly unusual or frightening setting, I would see the extenuating circumstances, and therefore permit your dissidence. But come _on!_ This is a mansion! It's not even a creepy mansion with, say, rotten stairs or bats in the attic. It's _Quatre's _mansion, for crying in the mud! Only there is no mud! I doubt if there's a single cobweb on this entire colony. And so, needless to say, you have some explaining to do." Duo waited patiently for his request to be fulfilled while Hope and Ezra stared blankly at him, reeling at the unexpected spiel from a previously absent parental figure.

Mariemaia, on the other hand, was completely composed and about to rebut when suddenly two shrill voices drowned out each other and completely precluded any possible response from her lips. Apparently, it had dawned on the children that Mariemaia was in trouble and at the moment, they were willing to take any opportunity presented to them to make her situation more condemning. 

Finally some understanding had been met by the two and they chorused in perfect unison, "Mariemaia's making up stories!"

"And they're bad!" 

"She's telling lies!"

"And trying to scare us!"

"No mommy'd make her kids cut off their feet!"

"A good princess would make them stop before they got hurt!"

"What's a princess got to do with it?" Ezra turned to look at her as if she had two heads.

"Cinderella's a princess; princesses are all kind and forgiving everyone." Hope explained matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but she's not a princess now, she's just a maid."

"But she's still a princess!"

"Nuh-uh, only when the birdies dropped stuff on her! It wore off!"

"Princessness doesn't wear off, you dumb boy!"

"How would you know!"

"Cause I'm a girl! Girls know everything about princesses! So there!"

"That's stupid! Why would you know more than me?"

"Cause I am one!"

"Are not!"

"Quatre called me one! I bet no one ever called _you _a princess!"

"Not if they don't wanna get beat up!"

"You can't beat anyone up!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"O-Kay! Fighters -- to your corners!" Duo finally stepped in between the rapid fire, "I mean it; sit. Both of you. Marie, your turn."

"Marie_maia,_" she corrected for the umpteenth time. "And it was not a horror story, as you put it. I was simply telling them a fairytale: Cinderella, unabridged, circa A.D. 1812."

"I see. And is it A.D. 1812?"

"No. . . ."

"Then I think it stands to reason that you should either be telling them an updated version, or be waiting until after dark, as per the rules of scary story telling. I'll be commandeering the imps now; Hilde's got ... crafts ... or something ... set up for them. I'm foreseeing glitter in Quatre's Persian rugs." He grimaced and waved his hands melodramatically over an imagined crystal ball. "And you just know that _I'm_ gonna be the one blamed for it." With a huff he turned on his heel, an "imp" caught under either arm, still glaring at each other behind his back.

*

Two Hours Later

At the movement of the bookcase swinging open, Quatre glanced up from his computer. His benign expression turned into a small frown as Trowa set a small plate of cookies on the edge of his desk. He opened his mouth to say something and Mariemaia frowned, fiddling with the security monitor, looking for the sound.

"-and furthermore, I'm insulted that you think so little of me as to believe you can just waltz in and destroy my resolve with a few sweets." For a high profile billionaire gone undercover agent harboring who knew how many secrets and skeletons, spying on Quatre was not proving very interesting. 

"Hilde helped Hope and Ezra make them; the children wanted you to have some."

"...Oh." Well, seeing him humiliated was something, anyway, but she wasn't overly enthusiastic about watching them bicker like an old married couple. She could get enough of that listening to Sally and Wu Fei. With a melodramatic sigh she pressed a button, flipping the monitor to a random room. She was rewarded with a view of some charming furniture. Another switch treated her to the sight of a hall carpet being vacuumed. A few more empty rooms, Duo and Hilde groping, and Relena dragging Hope to an ill-fated bath later, she found something more worthy of her attention.

She had seen the blonde woman but rarely, either in her mother's company or Quatre's. Dorothy Catalonia: she was a Preventer, that much she was sure of. She must have just recently arrived without fanfare. Mariemaia watched with impressed fascination as the poised young woman directed one of Quatre's servants around her room, unpacking her luggage for her. After the man had gone, she picked up a toiletry bag from the bed, crossing over to the vanity and neatly laying out a modest assortment of small tubes and bottles, followed by a gold backed hand mirror and its matching brush and comb.

Satisfied with the arrangement, she set the bag back on the bed and moved over to the closet. Throwing the twin doors wide she stood before an array of simple, but expensive looking clothes and a handful of formal gowns. As Mariemaia continued to watch, she crossed her arms behind her back: a posture that seemed more than a little militaristic in light of her current Preventer uniform, but Mariemaia suspected it was a natural stance for her. After apparent deliberation, Dorothy selected a relatively plain ivory dress from her collection of formal wear, and laid it across the bed. Returning to the closet, she next removed a decadent looking silk robe, laying it over one arm and once again retrieving her toiletries, before disappearing from the camera's view. Mariemaia pondered this for a few moments before checking her watch and realizing there was only an hour and a half before dinner was to be served.

*

One Hour Later.

"Mother, I acquiesced on wearing the dress. I refuse to wear the hair ribbon, or any other form of _bow._" She emphasized the last word with disgust before continuing on. "I am very nearly a teenager, and I have _already_ been a world sovereign. I beseech you; do not make me pull rank."

"Miss Relena-"

"I am _not_ Miss Relena. It's bad enough that I am dragged to the edge of outer space to pander to the needs of two _children_ for the entirety of my winter holiday, without being paraded around like a prepubescent marionette in front of former subordinates. I don't even have the benefit of Napoleon for a companion."

"Well then, consider this penalty for expulsion from your fifth school in the last two semesters. If you maintain your current level of behavioral inadequacy, you _will _be sent to the edge of outer space for school, as you will have exhausted all other options."

"_Mo_ther..."

"Or, if you are bound and determined to remain on Earth, we will have to locate a suitable convent when there are no more schools willing to accept you."

"It isn't _my _fault, Mother, I try, I really do ... It's only when other girls begin to talk. . . ."

"You must learn other outlets for your anger, Mariemaia. Your father was never one to approve of idle violence. Now, you look very sweet."

"I don't _want_ to look sweet. _Sweet_ is as bad as _cute_, and cuteis for _girls_. I am _not_ a little girl." Une was pensively silent a moment, smoothing the fine red waves that brushed at her shoulders.

"He will address you as 'Girl' for as long as he sees it as appropriate for you. When he sees that your behavior no longer constitutes that title, he will alter it accordingly. You cannot force him to see you as older by changing your appearance."

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." Her face was burning.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	12. Twilight

  
  


__Aishiteru__

_Chapter Eleven_

Twilight

6:12 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

  


Grownups made absolutely no sense, whatsoever, Ezra decided for the hundredth time. If they weren't asking questions they already knew the answers to, they were making up reasons for things or worrying over nothing. He cast a look across the long table to where Hope was sitting, primped and posed in a classically girlish dress of green watered silk. She was sitting up in her chair with her hands in her lap, but by the way she was staring blankly ahead, he guessed she was as bored as he was, just better trained. He gave his tie another tug, trying to keep it from choking him, and dropped his arm with a melodramatic sigh at his mother's disapproving look. His father gave him a sympathetic glance, looking like he wanted to pull at his own tie. Mother's, he amended. Mommy was the one who had made them dress up uncomfortably and rushed them down so they could be on time to wait. Daddy, at least, seemed to understand.

Dinner was supposed to be served promptly at six, and it had been, spread out mockingly in front of him as he scowled at his empty plate. Dinner was at six, it was _served_ at six, they were _there_ at six, so _why_ couldn't they just eat? If Quatre had wanted them to wait for him, he wouldn't have had the food served, right? He voiced another loud sigh and was rewarded with a light slap across the back of his hand from his mother. Trowa had said Quatre was at prayers, and that made him nervous. Daddy had taken him to church a couple of times, and if that was what Quatre's prayers were like, he was afraid they might be waiting for hours.

The grownups were making small talk amongst themselves, none of it very interesting. Hope's mommy and the new blonde lady were very politely arguing over something he didn't understand about historical borders on Earth, and Mariemaia looked like Mort, the stray tom that begged meals from their neighborhood, watching a fly on the other side of the window. Uncle Wuffie and Sally had been talking with them too, but had wound up in their own argument instead. Uncle Trowa was just listening and Mommy was talking about recycled colony air with the Lady Une; Daddy just looked bored.

He had already had his shrimp fork, swan-shaped napkin, and finger bowl taken away from him (the swan, it turned out, was too big to swim in the finger bowl), and was coming dangerously close to starting an orchestra with his family's water goblets and his spoon when Quatre made his grande entrance into the dining room, eliciting a single cheer from the table. Mommy glared at Daddy. Quatre looked surprised and promptly began gushing apologies for the wait, so Ezra tuned him out, turning his attention to the baked ham sitting bare inches from his woefully barren plate.

Taking a deep breath, he started counting in his head. His record was twenty-three before he couldn't stand the burning feeling in his lungs anymore. It wasn't the best way to kill time, but once he had passed out at the pool and Mommy had spoon fed him pudding in bed all afternoon. He was up to sixteen and was starting to squirm when Daddy dropped a spoonful of whipped potatoes on his plate. He grinned as it was followed by a slab of ham and a variety of dollops of things he couldn't identify. He was vaguely aware that the conversation around the table seemed to get louder and more cheerful while he was eating, but they were still talking about grownup things.

*

7:42 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01 

Relena sighed as her reflection looked back at her from the gilded mirror above the vanity in her room. Hope was with Ezra and his parents, spending more quality family time with a normal family. Well, she amended to herself, a _more_ normal family. Her silent reverie was interrupted by three crisp knocks at her door.

"Come in." She was only remotely surprised to see Wu Fei's silhouette appear in the light from the hallway. She turned, rising from the upholstered bench to meet him. "What can I do for you, Wu Fei?"

"Lady Relena. I thought I should share with you the conversation your daughter held with me last night." She set her jaw with resignation and lowered herself onto the edge of her bed.

"I'm sure you would not wish to bother me unless you thought it was important."

"She asked me specifically if Ezra's Uncle Heero was the same man in the photograph in Quatre's office, and if that man was her father."

"And what did you tell her?"

"That most of the things we decide are not what we know to be the best. We say yes, merely because we are driven into a corner and must say something. She is an intelligent child; I doubt proverbs and evasions will satisfy her for long."

She released a long, defeated sigh, her eyes looking past Wu Fei for a moment while he held a respectful silence. "I knew the time would eventually come when she'd need to know more, but I always hoped it wouldn't be until she was older ... old enough to understand. . . ."

"Unfortunately, there is no age when a child can understand such a decision."

"I suppose you're right, I just ..." she looked up at him wearily, squaring her shoulders. "He's gone again, isn't he?"

"Lady?"

"He was here ... I know he was. . . ."

A shadow flitted over his eyes a moment before answering. "He was. And he knows. He left sometime this morning."

"Did he say anything. . . ? At all. . . ?"

"I am sorry, Lady Relena."

*

9:26 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

Artificial moonlight crept mournfully over the stretch of garden visible from his window, and it seemed to Quatre somehow very barren. The decorative birdcage was empty; it's inhabitants temporarily relocated, and most of the flowers were covered, all in preparation for the gradually dropping temperature. By Christmas Eve the colony would be cold enough to host a carefully contained blizzard, as promised. The impression of quiet melancholy was fostered as he closed his eyes, by the echos of emotional discomfort seeping deeper past his defenses from various parts of the house. 

Duo and Hilde were worried ... neither had said a word to anyone but each other, but after Hilde's arrival and the unexpected touch of what she carried, he had a good idea of what it was about. Relena was somewhere downstairs ... he had a defined impression of her sadness and worry pacing wakefully beneath him. The source of her anguish was equally easy to guess. Hope was having a 'sleep-over' in Ezra's room, and opening his senses further he could feel their peaceful slumber, and, with a slight smile, the lively aura of their comprised dreamworlds. Wu Fei, he couldn't quite pinpoint, but there was certainly something troubling the solitary dragon as well, while he kept fitfully to his room ... probably something to do with Sally, on the other end of the hall, giving off an equal amount of unspecific frustration. The most poignant to him, though, were the all too familiar feelings of anger and loneliness that never quite faded completely from Mariemaia's carriage, and welled up in torment now that she slept.

With a shaky sigh, he withdrew his mental feelers, willing away the emotions permeating him, momentarily floundering as he was lost in the sea of sensation, unable to separate the others' feelings from his own. He jumped reflexively as a hand touched his arm, unaware that anyone else had entered his room during his reverie, but the press of skin against his, carried with it a subtle warmth of comfort and compassion that he anchored to until he could force all the rest out of his mind.

"A falter in your defenses." He nodded slowly in affirmation, closing his eyes again before moving his hand to cover the one settled on his bicep. "I could hear you. Your silence can be quite resounding at times."

"I'm glad you came ..." he trailed off lightly, opening his eyes again before turning away from the window. "This was supposed to be a celebration ... but so much has happened, so quickly. . . ."

He received a thoughtful nod in return, "That is simply what life is. We have all had more than our fair share of troubles, but we try to enjoy the few celebratory days on the calendar despite it."

"I'm glad you came ..." he repeated, tightening his fingers faintly over the thin hand he still held. The added weight of his words brought a hint of amusement to his companion's voice, "I was under the impression that Islam strictly forbade intimacy during Ramadan. . . ."

"It does," he agreed, bowing his head for a moment, "but I think it would kill me if I couldn't touch you right now. . . ."

*

December 21st, 1:13 AM Universal Time, Public Space Port, Winner Resource Satellite L4-III

It would be another two hours before he could get on a shuttle that would take him back to Winner Resource Satellite SE-IV, where his own shuttle was still moored. For three hours he had barely moved, rooted to an uncomfortable metal chair in a row of uncomfortable metal chairs lining the broad viewing window of Lobby 5. Ordinarily, he would have spent the time sleeping, old training prompting him to eat and rest whenever the opportunity presented itself, but instead he had been silently observing as the crowd around him ebbed and flowed while travelers boarded and alighted from their shuttles.

A higher ratio than usual seemed to be families, he noted; a statistic he chalked up to the rapidly approaching holiday. And those traveling alone were quick to strike up conversations with the complete strangers around them, trading explanations of where they were headed and who was waiting for them. Even the continual broadcast being piped in between schedule updates was particularly friendly; news casters breaking from their perpetual coverage of political battles and progress to highlight different celebrations taking place throughout the ESUN, and the activities of newsworthy celebrities towards the events. Every now and then he couldn't help looking up at one of the monitors when mention was made of Vice Foreign Minister Darlian's long vacation with her alleged lover, Quatre Raberba Winner, at his primary estate on L4. He could not, however, pinpoint exactly what the reactive tightening in his chest each time the subject came up was.

Strangely enough, it seemed his attention gravitated most towards the younger invaders of his space. Every few minutes a child would run up beside him, thrilled by the panoramic view of the universe the lobby offered, ecstatically pointing it out to an amused elder or stuffed toy, which ever seemed more interested. Heero watched with the detached concentration of a man studying rather than existing. In the intervals between these enthused specimens he found others that caught his interest as well; an exhausted young woman by herself, juggling a carry-on duffle bag in one arm and a sleeping two-year-old in the other; a pre-pubescent boy secretly watching the window from the corner of his eye, fascinated by the panoply but feeling too old to show it; a bonafide teenager slumping across two seats in a bored fashion, ignoring everything her parents tried to say to her and turning up the volume on her earphones. But just what, exactly, he was looking for in all of these observations, he didn't know.

For the extent of his wait, people had, for the most part, steered clear of him, intimidated by his stony silence or stern expression, so he was startled when one young woman stopped at the chair beside him, trying to dig through a diaper bag one handed while holding her infant's carrying seat level. Somehow obligated to help someone in such close proximity to him, Heero stood, not saying a word and held the carrying seat. The woman flashed him a grateful smile, releasing the handle long enough to delve deeper into the bag to retrieve her shuttle schedule and a pacifier. She placed the diaper bag back down on the floor, reclaiming her baby from Heero and sitting down with a sigh, balancing the cumbersome carrying seat in her lap. To his dismay, she took his gesture of common decency as an invitation for conversation.

"I've never traveled with Benjamin before," she confided as he sat back down. "I had no idea it was going to be this difficult. And this is only our first layover; we're going all the way to Earth."

Heero nodded politely in response. The woman paused a moment, but continued enthusiastically despite his limited reaction.

"My husband's with the Preventers, he's stationed at a North American base. This is Benjamin's first Christmas, so we're going to spend it with his Daddy."

"That should be nice." Heero offered non-committally, as it seemed it was his turn to speak.

"Are you on your way home? You look like a college student ... philosophy, right? You're too serious looking not to be a thinker."

Heero nodded slightly, finding it easier to affirm her conclusions than offer a different lie.

"David studied philosophy, before he enlisted. That was right before the war broke out. He was stationed at New Edwards, he was there for the Gundam attack. That's how we met, I was with a volunteer EMT and he was brought into our hospital," the hint of pride in her voice compounded his sudden discomfort at the turn of subject matter, and then, for some unknown reason, he replied.

"I was at New Edwards."

The woman looked surprised, "You must have been a baby then. . . . I thought neither side started recruiting juveniles until after that attack."

"Special circumstances."

"God, everything was a special circumstance to those people, wasn't it? Rules of war and basic human decency meant nothing to those bureaucrats." She sighed as her sudden burst of anger tapered off, and then smiled as she noticed his attention on her baby. "He's eighteen weeks old."

"He's small."

"He's a baby," she grinned. "They come that way. He's already gotten so much bigger, though. It's amazing how fast they grow."

"Hn." Heero shifted his gaze back to the wall across from them.

"Everyone told me he'd grow up fast, but I didn't believe them. More like I didn't understand them, you know? But, God, he's already rolling over and sitting up, pretty soon he'll be walking and talking, and then he'll start school..." She laughed and glanced down at her son, "But I'm sure a young, single guy like you isn't interested in hearing about my pre-empty nest syndrome. You'll understand someday, when you get to hold this tiny, innocent human being you created and you wonder how someone as tainted and imperfect as you are could possibly be a part of something so pure..." she smiled as the child in question gurgled and cooed whilst playing with her fingers. "Something with no knowledge of war or hate or pain, and doesn't care who you are or what you've done, so long as you love them as much as they love you. That's when you'll find out what love really is." She looked up at him again and he was still watching Benjamin, but he didn't seem to be seeing him. She mistook his unreadable expression for disinterest and assured, "... You'll understand."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	13. Diamond Dust

Aishiteru

_Chapter Twelve_

Diamond Dust 

December 24, AC 201; 2:45 PM Local Time, Winner Mansion, L4-A01

"Come back here, you little hoodlums!" Five heads turned to the doorway as the command resounded down the stairs, through the hall and past the ajar door of the den. It was succeeded by childish shrieks of merriment. The adults were just about to return to their discussion when their attention was reclaimed by a muffled thud, followed by another shout.

"MOMMY!" Two shrill voices cried in dire unison. Relena, Une, and Hilde all looked at each other from their respective positions across the room before jumping from their seats. Relena was the first to exit the room and as a result became an unfortunate participant in a head-on collision with two very panicked small persons.

"I'm sorry, Mommy!" Hope wailed from the floor where she had fallen. Ezra had run to his mother and latched onto her leg while Hope issued this earnest apology. "We didn't mean for it to happen! It was an accident!"

Relena picked Hope up off the floor while Une dashed past her and up the stairs, Wu Fei a few steps behind her with Sally at his own heels.

"What happened, Nadey?"

"We were only playing. . . . Marie was chasing us and we were running away but then she fell down and we tried to make her get up but she wouldn't and then we got scared and, and, and ..." Hope paused to catch her breath, "and I'm sorry we killed her, Mommy!"

"What?!" Relena threw a panicked look to the staircase up which the other three had disappeared before snatching up her daughter from the floor and moving hastily to the staircase. Hope continued to sob into her mothers shoulder, her entire body convulsing with sporadic hiccups and Relena was vaguely aware of her hot tears beginning to soak through her shirt. She finally reached the top of the stairs, gasping when she saw Mariemaia lying face down on the floor while the three adults crouched over motionless girl.

The sight of Sally checking the young girl's throat for a pulse froze Relena to her very core with fear, and she didn't know how long she might have stood there immobilized by shock if Hope hadn't been wailing so desperately.

"She's fine," Sally said tersely, her eyes never leaving Mariemaia's prone form. "She's only fainted." Une released an audible sigh of relief, a sad smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she smoothed her adopted daughter's hair away from her placid face. Sally looked up and nodded to Wu Fei, who in turn nodded back and bent to scoop the girl into his arms. Sally stepped out of the way as Wu Fei deftly bore Mariemaia through the hall, back to her bedroom with Une at his heels.

"What happened?" Relena turned around to find Hilde reaching the top of the stairs, a very guilty-looking Ezra perched on her hip. It was Sally's turn to sigh as she began to explain the situation.

"Mariemaia fainted while she was chasing Ezra and Hope," she stated.

"What?" Hilde exclaimed in shock. "Why?"

"Back during the Uprising she was shot — the bullet grazed her heart. She managed to pull through, but her heart can't handle a great deal of physical stress. If she pushes herself too hard, her heart can't keep up, her brain doesn't get enough oxygen, and she faints."

Sally's explanation felt a little oversimplified to Relena, but it seemed to satisfy Hilde, so she didn't offer any extra details. Besides, the children didn't need to hear about how Mariemaia had caught a bullet meant for herself, or about how it had been Mariemaia's own grandfather who had pulled the trigger.

"Will she be ok?"

"Physically, yes, but I'm sure she'll be more than a little embarrassed when she wakes up."

*

Une's hands shook as she untied the laces of Mariemaia's shoes. Wu Fei noted this and stepped away from the young girl's side to help Une at the foot of the bed.

"Lady?" he asked tentatively as his hands replaced hers at the knots in the laces. Relieved of their task, Une's hands balled into fists at her sides, still trembling slightly. "There's no need to be upset – Sally said she'll be fine, and she will."

"I'm not _upset _– I'm _mad_." Wu Fei looked up and realized that what he had mistaken for sorrow and worry, was actually well-contained rage. "He beat, berated, and brainwashed her," she began angrily. "He used her biological connection to a man she never knew to mold her into the figurehead that he himself could never be. And when he thought that she was going to die – by his own bullet, no less – he told her that she was _expendable_. He cared more for his damn army than his own grandchild. And everyday of her life, she is forced to remember that horrible man and what he did to her. As she gets older, she may forget his face, his voice, his words, and his hands, but she can never forget that one bullet. Her own body won't let her forget."

"Perhaps she is not meant to forget." Une glanced over at Wu Fei, unexpectant of a response. "Perhaps her memory shall one day be her strength."

_Isn't she strong enough as she is? _Une thought to herself as Wu Fei tucked Mariemaia's shoes partially under the bed skirt before exiting the room and leaving the females alone.

*

4:20 PM Local Time

Hope patted down another coating of snow on her sculpture. She had set out on mission to create a three-dimensional likeness of her mother, but Ezra had taken it upon himself to enlighten her on the standard for the gender of snowpeople. Apparently, (according to Ezra) normal people make snow_men_. No one he had ever heard of made snow_women_. And so, with this knowledge, she had set about redesigning the simulacrum. Ezra, it seemed, was dead-set on beleaguering her despite her efforts to appease him. She managed to successfully ignore him until one renegade snowball lobbed off her androgynous snowperson's head. 

She hadn't wanted to use her last resort, but Ezra had left her no option.

At the sound of screaming, Hilde had come running, no doubt expecting a missing limb or something to that effect. When she found Hope sitting in the snow and bawling her eyes out while Ezra stood frozen and bewildered with snowball raised incriminatingly, she sighed with exasperation. While Ezra was trying to think of an explanation, Hilde trudged out into the snow, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him inside. 

Hope had been immediately silenced. 

With tears still clinging to her cheeks, she'd stuck her tongue out at him when Hilde's back was turned. When what transpired finally dawned on Ezra, he had thrown a fit from behind the glass door while Hope nonchalantly retrieved the disembodied head of her snowperson.

*

"Hey." Hope looked up from her work and at the boy who had emerged from the evening shadows. He wasn't dressed very well for the weather, and she was about to ask him if he was cold but he spoke first. "Do you live here?" She put the question away for later and answered him instead.

"No. Just visiting." He frowned disbelievingly.

"Nobody 'just visits' the Winners. You must be a servant's kid or something." He inspected her in the failing light of sundown. "Nah, I know all the kids in this neighborhood and I've never seen _you_ before. You must be some spoiled diplomat's kid."

"I'm not spoiled!"

"Oh so you _are_ a diplomat's brat!"

"I am _not_ a _brat_!" She snapped and then stuck out her tongue for good measure.

"Then ya wanna play a game with me?" he asked randomly, their quarrel apparently forgotten.

"OK," Hope acquiesced, content to forgive his earlier accusations. "What game?" she queried simply before packing more snow onto the body of her snowman.

"Have ya ever heard of 'hoolet'?" He didn't wait for her answer, though, and began circling her simulacrum. She looked at him again. He was probably only two years older than her – not too old to play with, but too much of a stranger to talk to. But you already talked to him, she reminded herself. Oh well, there goes that rule out the window. "Is this your first snowman, or what?"

She glared at him, forgetting again to ask him his name. "No it is _not._"

He just raised his eyebrows and surveyed the snowman again. "Your first without your mom helping?" Her face fell.

"Yes."

"Not bad," he appraised haughtily. "But mine's better." His hubris melted at the excitement of describing his own snowsculpture, and he turned to her with a smile. "His bottom is wider than you are long!" He expressed its great girth by spreading his arms wide.

"Fibber," she accused with hands on hips.

"Am not!" he spat back with scowl. "And Mom let me use candy for the face!"

"I don't believe you," Hope retorted and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'll show you if you don't believe me!"

"Fine!"

"Fine! Come with me!" He grabbed her mittened hand in his own bare one and started pulling her toward the line of trees where he had emerged. She looked back over her shoulder while she was tugged further and further from the great edifice that was the Winner mansion.

"But what about Mommy?" she asked in a worried tone.

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her over his shoulder. "You'll be back before she knows you're gone." Hope decided to risk it. She threw one last look over her shoulder at the yellow light over the glass door and thought she saw Ezra watching from behind the pane before she plunged into the deepening shadows of the copse of trees that ran along the edge of the Winner property. She had a momentary impulse to run back to the safety of the familiar, but the boy sped up, pulling her along with him, and then she couldn't see the door anymore.

*

"MOMMY!"

"Ezra! You are in time-out!"

"But _Mom-_mieeee!"

"That's enough out of you!" Hilde called over her shoulder while she finished hanging Ezra's wet outerwear up on the shower curtain bar. If it wasn't one thing, it was another with that boy. And they might be having _another_. That was it, she decided. She was never letting Duo touch her _ever again_.

*

Duo happened to be walking within earshot as this exchange transpired and took it upon himself to find out just _why _his son had been put in time-out for the third time that day. Luckily for Ezra, the first room he walked into was the one where he was being detained, and also the one with the sliding glass door overlooking the snowy playground recently abandoned by Hope.

"So what did you do this time?" Duo leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arm over his chest. "Stash a snowball in the freezer? Bury Hope in a snow cave? Try to make spit-cicles?"

"Daddy!" Ezra frowned and pointed out the door in frustration. "Lookit!"

Duo followed his son's finger and looked outside. "What? The snowman?" Duo was suddenly gripped by a horrible thought. "You didn't make it anatomically correct again, did you?!"

"Da_-ad!"_ Ezra scowled, not entirely sure what his father meant, but knowing that it had nothing to do with what he was trying to tell him. "There was a _kid_ out there!"

"A kid?" Duo frowned, half relieved and half confused. "You sure?"

"I'm telling the truth! He was playing with Hope!"

"But Hope's not out there."

"She left with him."

"Woah. Back up. . . . She _left?_" Ezra nodded his head vehemently. "OK, you just ... um ... stay here. I'll go bring her back." Duo was about to walk straight out the door when two facts struck him simultaneously. One: he was not dressed properly to go scour the colony in a snowstorm, and two: he did not know his way around the colony. "But first, I'll go get Trowa."

*

_How_ _humiliating_, Mariemaia thought to herself as she stared up at the cream-colored fabric of the four-poster's canopy. The room was devoid of any stimulating characteristics, instead an obvious exercise in unobtrusiveness with its off-white walls and carpet, and stained oak furniture. She found it repulsive in its restraint.

With a sigh, she sat up and slid off the coverlet, nearly tripping on her own shoes which had been left by the side of the bed, half hidden by the bed skirt. What a perfectly parental place to put shoes. Sitting back down on the edge of the bed, she tugged them on and quickly tied the laces, already planning how to avoid the rest of the household for the remainder of the day. She stood again and walked out of the room and into the deserted upstairs hallway, quietly closing the door lest anyone be alerted to her awakened state.

Carefully looking around corners for servants and guests alike, she made her way downstairs and into what Mariemaia had come to call the "display hall." One side was doors to the smaller rooms for diplomatic or social guests while the other side was a wall covered with portraits of the extensive Winner family, along with some scattered statuary and landscape paintings. It had not escaped Mariemaia's attention that all of the current guests of the Winner patriarch were being housed in the upstairs rooms, which were officially reserved for family members, but she chose not to mull over that at that moment, instead inspecting a worn corner on an oil paining of one of the exquisite Winner women. She walked past the various artworks slowly, enjoying the reprieve from babysitting the four-year-olds.

She reached the end of the hall and turned the corner, smiling as she was met with the huge picture windows that made up the south wall of this wing and faced the large inner courtyard of the complex. Placing her fingertips against the cold pane gingerly, Mariemaia smiled at the winter wonderland that stood before her, just a few centimeters of glass away. The bushes and trees were stooped with the weight of several centimeters of snow, which smoothed their outlines into a rounded, white world without angles. Only the constantly moving water of the fountain in the center of the courtyard was seemingly immune to the snow, as the powder clung to the surfaces of the stone masonry that housed the water, but was unable to grip the fickle liquid.

She wanted desperately to go out there and experience the snow in all its glory, but simultaneously did not want to disturb the natural perfection that had settled over the manmade haven. Her reverie was interrupted, however by one of her young charges barreling into her as he hastily turned the corner of the display hall at a dead run.

Both children fell to the floor in a confused and tangled heap, but Ezra was the first to recover.

"Marie!" he screeched delightedly. "You're not dead!"

"Of course I'm not!" she snapped in annoyance. "And where's my magazine you little hoodlum?"

"What magazine?" Ezra asked from the floor where he sat, the cause of Mariemaia's assumed demise already forgotten. "Oh _that _magazine," he said, remembering. The small boy shook his head earnestly. "There's no time for that! Hopey's missing!"

"Hopey?" Mariemaia pulled herself up. "What do you mean she's _missing_?"

"I mean she's _missing_," he repeated, following her example and pulling himself up as well. "Daddy and Uncle Trowa went out looking for her just now. I'm going to tell Uncle Quatre. That's my mission." He was about to run off again, but Mariemaia grabbed him by one shoulder, halting his escape.

"And where is Quatre?"

"In his office."

"Aren't we taking the long way around?"

"No _we_ are not. I am."

Mariemaia sighed. "Why are _you_ taking the long way around when you could have just crossed the entryway to the office?"

"Because the entry's all cluttery. No room to run."

"I should have guessed," she muttered to herself. "Continue," she directed, lifting her hand from his shoulder. Ezra smiled and started off running down the hall gleefully, despite the gravity of the situation.

"So what do you do when the former Queen of the World's daughter goes missing?" she whispered to the perfectly still courtyard. "Is a coincidence even _possible_?"

*

Sally scuffed her booted toe angrily at the coating of snow that had buried the cobbled walkway, watching as the white fluff was scattered in front of her, marring the perfection of the pristine snow. She sighed, feeling guilty for sullying yet another beautiful thing.

"I'm so melodramatic, sometimes," she muttered to herself, watching the fog of her breath rise and dissipate into the darkening sky. She was really being quite silly, she told herself. They hadn't even had an argument for at least a month, and she was out here moping. But she couldn't help but feel like a cradle-robber when they were together in front of other people, and it made her guilty, angry, and act utterly ridiculous all at the same time.

_First of all_, she reminded herself,_ a handful of brief, romantic encounters do not a relationship make_. Second of all, she had no proof that anyone even knew that their pseudo-relationship had ever started. She had barely even realized it herself, at first. 

At first, she was his superior officer. They had held a mutual respect for each other, but she was still protective of him and he was of course offended by it. It had been terribly fun for her to treat him like the teenager he had been, but then all of the sudden, she was no longer looking down at him, but staring him straight in the eye. He had grown up while she hadn't been watching and their arguments, once nearly nonexistent with such a gap between their positions, heated up and he began to grate on her nerves. 

Then one day they had been assigned a mission. As partners. 

The experience had been excruciating, but highly effective, and as a result from then on, they were permanent partners – and virtual equals in the Preventer hierarchy. They bickered and argued as once she never would have imagined, but also they became less guarded with each other, and that had been their downfall, she supposed. Before she had realized it, the attraction was there, spurring her on to find some new way to vex and annoy him. She had decided that he must possess the same strange fascination with nettling her, as he grew more and more adept at pushing her buttons and driving her absolutely nuts as their partnership progressed.

Eventually, this had culminated one day as she had sat down at her desk and found all her neatly organized case files scattered about the top of her desk. She had simply lost it. She had barreled across the room to his desk and leaned over it, screeching at him about his unprofessionalism and immaturity and the rest of the gamut. When she had finally run out of breath, he had just sat there staring up at her. Then he had broken out into laughter and she had been stunned. It had been the first time she had ever seen so much as a chuckle from the stern man and she wasn't sure how to react. Still smiling, he had stood up and leaned across the desk until they were nearly nose to nose. Then he had told her how beautiful she was when she was angry and they had kissed for the first time.

After that, they continued to bicker constantly, but they both knew there was never any venom in the remarks made, no matter how scathing their confrontations appeared to outsiders. Une had even asked her once if she would prefer to switch departments for the sake of being assigned a new partner. Sally had declined respectfully, but inside she had been happy to have her belief that their true feelings toward each other were unknown to the rest of the preventers validated. Since arriving at Quatre's complex, however, she had the unnerving feeling that the unintrusive blonde knew what was going on, but neither side confronted the other on the subject, and Sally was content to let sleeping dogs lie.

She had no desire to reveal the true nature of their partnership to anyone, let alone this particular group of people. Just being around them made the guilt she felt about lusting over someone so much younger than herself rise to the surface and spoil what was supposed to be a time of felicitous celebration.

She also had the sneaking suspicion that the twelve-year-old of the group was on to her. The way she had stared at her from across the dinner table that first night had made Sally especially self-conscious to the point of cornering Wu Fei after the meal over the girl's all-knowing smirk.

"Yes, she suspects," he had admitted, "but she doesn't know. That's why she was staring at you tonight."

"_What?_" she had hissed in angry confusion.

"She's testing you. She wants to see how you'll react under suspicion. If you let her get to you like this, she'll know her intuition is correct. But if you don't let on that you're bothered by her, then she'll come to believe herself mistaken and will let it go."

Wu Fei had, of course, been right. Sally had brushed off the girl's gazes, even acted slightly confused by them, and eventually Mariemaia had backed off. But it still disturbed her how well Wu Fei understood the girl and had predicted her motives.

*

Wu Fei looked up over the edge of the book he was reading and watched Relena slip out of the room, a determined look on her face. He knew where she was headed and made no move to stop her, instead issuing a silent prayer that this whole mess would get cleared up and that Hope would be brought back safe and sound. Relena had become very distraught at the news that her daughter had run off with another child, despite Hilde's assurances that children do such things and that her husband and Trowa would bring the girl back forthwith. Relena had never had to deal with such a situation before, since her daughter had never had the opportunity to play with other children, but still she seemed more upset by the scenario than the situation warranted and Wu Fei wasn't sure if that was due to the actual unfamiliarity of the problem, or whether this was a somatization of some sort of mother's intuition. Despite his outward damning of women's weaknesses, he was more than willing to admit their strengths, and female intuition was one intangible attribute of the sex that Wu Fei wholeheartedly believed in. He had witnessed it too many times to doubt its existence.

Hilde, too, was restless. She fidgeted in her seat, and her eyes nervously flitted from one object to another in the library. Dorothy, on the other hand, was the picture of aloofness. She sat perched on a corner chair reading a book and never lifted her eyes from the pages. It had not escaped Wu Fei's attention, however, that she had not turned a page for a good five minutes, at least.

All the women seemed to be acting abnormally, he realized. Sally had left him confused and annoyed after she had engaged him in a brief, one-sided spat and stamped off down the hall earlier. Even Mariemaia had been edgy at breakfast, watching the others intently and barely touching her food. He wondered if maybe the odd behavior of the females was an harbinger of something bigger to come and continued to muse over Sally's especially odd conduct.

Wu Fei was well aware of how self-conscious Sally could be in relation to the drastic age difference between her and himself, and had perhaps too hastily brushed off her agitation as a side effect of staying in such close quarters with former comrades in arms. Wu Fei knew that he himself had a tendency to act differently when surrounded by such strong memories of his past, so it had not been too great a leap of logic to assume that Sally could be similarly affected. 

Or perhaps, he had pondered, seeing their friends making such progresses in their lives had made Sally bitter over the apparent stagnation of their own relationship. Their fist kiss had been almost a year ago, but the circumstances of their relationship had demanded secrecy, while his own honor had demanded marriage vows before they could engage in more intimate contact. Thus, they had arrived at an impasse early on and since neither was willing to abandon either their profession or their relationship in favor of the other, that which could barely carry the title of "relationship" became stunted within the confines of the title "Preventer."

Now he suspected that while both were reasonable causes, another, less palatable cause loomed over the group. And while he itched to seek out Sally and keep her under his watchful eyes, he knew that his protective instincts would only chafe her precious independence. That noted, Wu Fei made up his mind to stay put and watch over the females that sat before him just in case that "less palatable cause" chose to materialize and threaten their safety. He knew neither would be appreciative to discover his defensive intentions, but Hilde and Dorothy, unlike Sally, did not know him well enough to realize what he was doing, and so he capitalized on their ignorance.

*

"Uncle Quatre!" a shrill voice greeted excitedly. Quatre looked up from his legal forms to see Ezra squeeze past the heavy office door and bound across the room to his desk. Quatre smiled and set the documents down on his workspace to watch the dark-haired boy clamber up onto the leather and mahogany chair opposite his own. "Whatchya working on?"

"Your Christmas present to your father," Quatre answered with a chuckle. Ezra's eyes lit up and he stood on the chair to get a better glimpse of the documents littering his uncle's desk.

"Really? Is it almost done? Will it be ready for tomorrow morning?"

"Yes, yes, and yes." Quatre pushed his chair back from the edge of the desk. "Would you like to see?"

"Uh-huh!" Ezra eagerly jumped off of the chair and scrambled around to Quatre's side, where he was adroitly lifted up into his uncle's lap. Quatre picked up the topmost document and showed it to Ezra.

"This is the building's certification as an orphans' asylum," he picked up another sheaf, "and this is the building permit to remodel the church."

"But the building's already put together, right? I mean, it's _done_ isn't it?"

"Yes," Quatre answered with a laugh. "They wouldn't have given me the certification if it weren't. I'm just holding on to this for safekeeping."

"OK, I just wanted to make sure." Quatre was still laughing when something prickled the edge of his senses. Immediately his entire demeanor changed, as he felt the malicious energy enter the perimeter of the estate, steadily moving closer to the main building. Ezra noticed his uncle's serious, distant appearance, as if he were listening to something very far off, and grew still in his lap. The spidery feeling of malice continued to grow in Quatre's mind, and unexpectedly Ezra found himself standing on the floor by Quatre's chair again.

"I want you to go find your mother or father, Ezra, and stay with them," he instructed, standing up from his desk. "And avoid the south wing, if you can."

Ezra nodded dazedly, confused by his uncle's sudden mood swing. He watched as Quatre walked determinedly across the room to the door and exited without another word. It was then that Ezra finally remembered why he had come to Quatre's office in the first place, and upon his recollection, he too ran to the doorway, tugging the heavy wooden door ajar and squeezing through in an attempt to catch up with his uncle. When Ezra entered the hallway, however, Quatre was nowhere to be seen, and had left no clue to his destination.

Feeling dejected, Ezra reentered the office and climbed up into Quatre's chair, committed to wait there until his uncle's return.

*

Relena trudged down the hall, determination moving her limbs while anxiety filled them with lead. Conflicting emotions waged in her heart for supremacy, but in the end all were too equal in strength for any one emotion to win out over the others. So instead, she allowed her maternal instincts to lead her past the portraits of the deceased and through the desolate corridor to the small door she knew lie waiting at the other end. When she reached it, anxiety welled up in her and her hand shook as she reached out for the handle, nearly causing her to turn back. But she knew that for the sake of her daughter, this door had to be opened, and that she must walk down the stairs that were on the other side.

Finally, she opened the door and looked down the dimly lit staircase with mounting fear. She took the steps slowly, part of her still unwilling to admit her heinous mistake four years ago. At the bottom of the stairs, she was faced with another door, this one made of steel and even more imposing than the last. For a brief moment, Relena rested her forehead against the cool metal and took a deep, composing breath. When she had gathered her wits, she grasped the heavy bar handle and pushed the door open, letting the bright fluorescent light spill into the comparatively dark stairwell.

Within that metal room that glowed from the light of the numerous monitors that lined the walls, Heero sat in a high-backed metal chair, which he had spun around to face the door. He sat there, watching her as she stepped into the room tentatively and closed the door behind her. When the door clicked shut, Relena finally summoned the nerve to look up from Heero's boots and meet his cold gaze with her own, wounded one.

"We need to talk," she said gently.

*

Mariemaia stood by the large picture window, watching the snow fall gently and heavily while she remained lost in thought. She felt a profound protective emotion toward the child that had been following her around, doe-eyed for the past few days, and part of her would not have bothered hesitating, had it been given ascendency. Instead it would have leapt out into the snowstorm and joined the search wholeheartedly and without a second thought. 

She wanted desperately to go out and help in the search for Hope, but her earlier fainting spell had so demoralized her as to hinder her from even stepping outside. The last thing she wanted was to faint out in the snowstorm and become an obstruction in the search effort. She didn't ever want to be the weak link in any team.

It was a terrible internal conflict, with neither side gaining or losing ground for very long. She wondered how the others were handling the situation, but still did not possess the courage to face them after her earlier embarrassment. Immobilized by ambiguity, she stood silently watching the snow fall and listening to her own breathing.

Several minutes passed as Mariemaia stood at the glass, musing, but abruptly she pulled her hand away from the pane and took a step back, face hardening with resolve. She turned away from the window then, apparently headed back the way she came, but froze as a deafening boom filled the air. 

Mariemaia clamped her hands over her ears as if to stop the pain the explosive sound had caused, only to be knocked to her knees as the whole house seemed to lurch under her feet. The walls trembled and Mariemaia tucked her head down and covered her face with her hands. She could hear the art crashing from the walls fought to quash the panic gripping her mind as memories of the Brussels collapse trickled into her consciousness. 

The scream of shattering glass filled the hall and Mariemaia felt the shards and slivers rain down on her. She inhaled sharply through her teeth as her back seemed to catch fire with the pain of the thousands of tiny wounds. After a few moments, the scene had apparently stabilized, and a shaking Mariemaia slowly stood, cringing as the glass cascaded down her back, slicing new wounds, opening preexisting ones, and imbedding itself in her flesh. When she had finally gotten a grip on the pain, she opened her eyes and looked out the gaping hole that used to house a window.

Trees trembled, their bare branches shaking, free of the snow that had hindered them just a few moments ago. Mariemaia could not see clear across the expansive courtyard, but over the tops of the newly freed trees, she could see ugly black smoke billowing up. An icy gust of wind rushed in through the opening, blowing snow across the broken glass that littered the floor and knocking a few pieces that had been clinging to the frame down to clink into their comrades. The wind brought with it the sour smell of burning and the dusty scent of crushed concrete. And then she saw it.

A thick cloud of murky, pale concrete dust seeped across the courtyard, swallowing the bushes and trees and statuary as it steadily approached Mariemaia. Slowly she backed away from the gaping maw of the window, eventually bumping against the opposite wall.

"Relax," she commanded herself, "it's just _dust_." No sooner had the words left her lips, than another tremor rattled the wall, and her nerves. It was then that she realized that the explosion hadn't ended with a simple detonation – it had created a domino effect by collapsing the south wing and inflicting more stress than the rest of the structure could handle. The mansion was by no means stable, nor was the incident anywhere near over. Looking out he window, she could see another, separate cloud of dust rising over the southeast corner of the mansion and realized the tremor she had felt had been its collapse.

Panic rose in her chest, gripping her lungs with steely claws and making her want to scream while coincidentally impairing her ability to do so. Another tremor rumbled, but this time instead of fading away, it grew in strength. Mariemaia had only a heartbeat to crouch against the wall and cover her head before the world came crashing down. Her last conscious thought was the realization that she longed for her mother to stoop over her and protect her from the falling rubble as she had all those years ago when another world of hers was in the midst of being destroyed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


	14. Concrete Dust

Aishiteru

___Chapter Thirteen_

Concrete Dust

December 24, AC 201; 4:32 PM Local Time, Office of Police Lieutenant James Werner, 3rd Precinct A01PD, L4

"I swear, the way people fawn over her every move, you'd think she was still the Queen of the Earth Sphere." Une suppressed the urge to roll her eyes as the commander in chief grumbled on the vidphone screen from his presidential mansion in Brussels.

"You forget that she could easily reclaim that title at any time, Mr. President. That is, if she ever wanted to," she qualified at the last minute. "There are billions of people on Earth as well as the Colonies who would happily live under her rule. If she hadn't dropped out of the 200 election she'd be sitting in your seat right now." She smirked under her mask before adding, "Even _you _can't deny the sway she holds over the people."

"What about these terrorists?" he asked gruffly, changing the subject. "What do we know about them?"

"Well, Sir, at first we believed the threats originated from the Intraspherical Tribunal for Unpunished War Atrocities–"

"Yes, this kind of attack is right up the alley of those glorified vigilantes."

"_However_, new evidence suggests that the true perpetrators are only hiding behind ITUWA's reputation while pushing a separate agenda."

"And what evidence do you have to support this theory?" The white-haired politician was clearly disinclined to admit anyone but a known party was responsible.

"ITUWA has never before threatened violence against any one person. They have only leaked names to the press along with whatever incriminating evidence they have. They try individuals in the court of public opinion. This latest threat against the Vice Foreign Minister is a stark departure from their accepted modus operandi."

"What about the courthouse in New London they set on fire? And the smoke bombs in the prisons all over the L1 Cluster on the anniversary of the Brisbane Trials? This is a violent group, Lady. They always have been."

"Yes, but those acts were all concerned with aesthetics," she reminded him. "You'll recall that not one person was killed in any of those incidents."

The president sighed and rubbed his temples, a signal of concession. "So they're not who we thought they were."

"No."

"Do we know _anything _about this group pretending to be the ITUWA?"

"Not yet, Sir."

"Please tell me you have _some_ good news."

"Last night we were finally able to secure the leak in the Preventers."

"Great! Only took a week and a half! And God knows how long ago the mole's been inside!"

"True, we do not know to what extent our organization has been compromised, but we believe she might have information that could help us tap their communications. Unfortunately, she is extremely loyal to the group and the interrogation process is going slowly. Our technical investigation team is examining the communications devices found in her possession as we speak."

"Une, how dangerous is this group?"

"Very."

"How could they have grown to such an extent _right under our noses?!_ Why didn't the Preventers catch this?!" the president clapperclawed at the vidphone.

"They are not following the typical formula of a terrorist group. They are not funneling unusual or dangerous chemicals or developing large amounts of superior metals. In short, they're not sending up the typical red flags. I don't know what their objective is, but it does not seem to be military. At least, not in the modern understanding of the term."

"I'm sick of these radical groups popping up all over the Earth Sphere! You better clean this mess up before they have the chance to make good on their threats, Lady!" The president brusquely closed the call, leaving Une fuming with cumulative frustration.

"I should have handed the matter over to Duo. If I had, we would have their transmissions decoded by now. And we wouldn't be reduced to just sitting here, waiting for them to make their move."

Abruptly, the office door opened and Une's eyes shot up to give whoever had dared disturb her a wilting glare. She was mildly surprised to see the lieutenant of the precinct standing in the doorway, but did not dampen her glare. The middle-aged man whose office she had temporarily usurped was unfazed and his face remained stoic and inscrutable.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, ma'am, but something has happened." Une straightened and waited for the man to continue. He stood in silence a moment longer before clasping his hands behind his back "There has been a terrorist attack against the Winners." He paused, took a breath, and went on. "At the mansion where you've been staying."

"When?"

"Just a few minutes ago. While you were on the phone with the president. We've already sent all our available units and the fire department is on its way." Ignoring him, Une picked up the phone again and began dialing.

"They are going to be joined by Preventers. Expect them to arrive at the docking bay in thirty minutes or less. Meanwhile, I'm ordering the suspension of all outgoing craft. Get on the radio and the phones; send suits if you have to. Make sure the attackers don't leave the colony. If anyone gives you a hard time, tell them to file their complaints to the Preventers Headquarters in New London. Yes, it's Une," she said into the phone. "We have a situation." She looked back up to the lieutenant. "How soon can you get a helicopter to take me over there?"

December 24, AC 201; 4:32 PM Local Time, Sirius Hotel, L4-A01

"Found anything yet?" Zechs asked immediately, even before he was entirely inside the hotel room. Lucrezia just rolled her eyes and kept typing.

"Who do you think I am, Duo Maxwell? I'm about as good a hacker as your average highschool techy."

"You're still better than I am," he admitted, shrugging off his coat and tossing it on the bed, then sitting down beside it.

"Well, I doubt Relena hired a highschool student to hide these files. I'm sorry Zechs, but they're just out of my reach. Looks like your gonna hafta do it the old fashioned way and ask your sister."

"You think she'll forgive me after I –" Zechs was unexpectedly cut off by a thunderous boom that shook the hotel all the way up to the twenty-second floor where they were staying. Startled, Lucrezia gripped the edge of the desk while Zechs grabbed for the wall. The tremor passed almost as quickly as it had come and Lucrezia and Zechs were left staring at each other. After the initial shock wore off, Lucrezia jumped up and over to the sliding glass door of the balcony.

"Oh my god," she whispered, barely loud enough for Zechs to hear.

"What? What is it?" Instead of answering, Lucrezia yanked the door open and stepped out onto the snow-covered cement. Stunned, she turned back toward the room with wide eyes.

"The mansion," was all she could get out before Zechs was beside her, gaping as she had been at the black smoke billowing up from the snow-white Winner estate.

"Jesus Christ. . . . They bombed the mansion." Zechs didn't stay dazed for long. Quickly slipping into his soldier's persona, Zechs reentered the hotel room, dragging Lucrezia by the arm before plucking his coat from the bed. Following suit, Lucrezia went for her coat as well, only to be stopped by Zechs.

"No. You stay here. Call Une."

"I have to go with you–" she started, only to be cut off by Zechs.

"Please, Lu. Please stay here so I don't have to worry about you, too." He kissed her quickly and was gone. Lucrezia took a long breath before sitting back down at the desk and picking up the phone. Her fingers deftly dialed Une's personal mobile line and picked up an idle pencil to fiddle with while she waited for her friend to answer. After several rings, she slammed the phone down in irritation.

"This is crazy," she muttered to herself before picking up the phone again and dialing the front desk. "Yes, hello," she greeted hurriedly before the concierge could go through his script. I need the number for the ..." she glanced at a note she had scribbled down on the hotel stationery a few days earlier, "... third precinct police department." She retrieved the pencil she had been fiddling with and prepared to take down the number.

"Madam, the explosion down the street has already been reported by hotel staff and a number of guests. Management respectfully asks that all guests stay in their rooms and let the proper officials handle the situation."

"You don't under stand. I'm with the–" the concierge suddenly closed the call before she could finish, leaving Lucrezia staring at a blank screen. She fairly growled and jumped up from her seat at the desk, heading once again for the closet and her winter coat.

December 24, AC 201; 4:32 PM Local Time, Winner Estate, L4-A01

There was a great flash of light that dispelled the holographic sky, momentarily revealing the metal ceiling of the colony, the sight of which made Hope stop dead in her tracks and turn around toward the source. Less than a second after the flash, a deafening explosion sounded from the other side of the trees through which she had just been running. Hope squealed and clamped her hands over her ears, squeezing her eyes shut against the noise.

"What was that?" she shouted.

"I- I dunno," came the quiet response. Hope opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder at the older boy. He was watching the darkening forest behind them with wide eyes and seemed scared. "I think we'd better get to my house quick though."

"No! I wanna go back!" she screeched, stepping away from him and making as if to backtrack through the woods.

"No! You can't!" he said, grabbing her arm. "You'll get lost!"

"I don't care! I'm scared!" she whined, yanking her arm away. "I want my mommy!" She turned and ran from him then, not really looking where she was going, but running blindly through the darkening woods.

She ran for what seemed like forever – until her legs were too tired to keep up the pace her fright demanded. She fell forward, catching a faceful of snow and collapsing into tears. She wailed loudly, hot tears melting the snow that clung to her face. Wiping her runny nose with the back of a mittened hand, she stood up, still crying profusely and hiccuping syncopatedly. Her booted feet dragged in the deepening snow as she slowly walked forward without a clear destination. She had gotten herself hopelessly lost, but was too proud to admit it, even to herself, and therefore simply kept walking with the vague hope that she might find herself back home or that someone might find her.

Eventually, someone did.

"Are you sure you don't want to come back to my house?" Hope looked up from the ground and saw that the boy was just a few meters ahead of her, sitting in the snow under the mild protection of one of the L4 pines. She had run in a circle, succeeding only in wearing herself out and scaring herself more than necessary. When she met his eye, he stood and trudged over to her, dropping the snowball he had been smoothing while he sat. "My mom can take you back to the Winner place if you want once we get there."

"Why can't we go back now?"

"It's getting dark really fast. Soon you won't be able to see your hand in front of your face. It'd really be better for my mom to drive you back."

"Ok," Hope capitulated, exhausted and defeated. The boy extended his hand to lead her back through the forest, and Hope tiredly accepted the leather-gloved offering. "What's your name?" she asked quietly.

"My name's Cero," he said, smiling again. "What's yours?"

"Hope," she answered meekly.

"C'mon, Hope," he pressed gently. "Let's go find my mom." Cero began walking and hope easily fell into step beside him, allowing him to lead her through the thick wood that surrounded the entire Winner complex. Hope felt her exhaustion creeping up on her as they trudged, and she began to drag her feet. Cero slowed to keep pace with her, but didn't stop.

Eventually they reached the end of the forest and were standing at the edge of a large open yard. Through the nebulous darkness hope could scarcely make out the outline of a darkened house. Instead of walking toward the house as she would have expected, Cero led her to the edge of the nearby road. A car was parked and running at the bottom of the hill on the shoulder of the road. A tall woman stepped out of the car, a heavy winter trenchcoat wrapped around her shoulders. She hastily dashed around the car and began trudging up the hill, despite her high heels. Hope had to assume the woman was Cero's mother, as the woman rushed to him first, kneeling down and asking him if he was alright. Cero nodded and then the woman looked to Hope and said something, but Hope couldn't make out the words – the syllables slurred into each other and the sentence kind of melted in Hope's ears. Her vision began to swim and blur too, and then the darkness of the night seemed to creep into her eyes and stain her vision black.

"Good job, Cero," the woman praised, holding up the unconscious girl by her shoulders. She slipped one arm around Hope's back and hefted the child onto her hip as she stood while the boy glared up at her angrily.

"Who the hell gave Anya the go-ahead to detonate?!" he asked furiously while he tore off the leather glove on the hand that had been holding Hope's. The woman reached into her pocket with her free hand and handed Cero a plastic bag, which he took and stuffed the glove into before removing the other glove and storing it with its twin.

"No one did," the woman replied, annoyance clear in her tone. Cero removed the latex gloves he had worn under the leather ones and stuffed them, too, into the plastic bag before tying off the opening and stuffing the bag into his own coat pocket. "She got overanxious and set off the explosives before the order was given."

Cero trudged down the hill and to the still-running car, opening the door for the woman to deposit the sleeping girl in the backseat. She walked around the front of the car and got behind the wheel while Cero climbed into the backseat next to Hope.

"She could've ruined everything, Avicenna!" Cero continued, glowering out the tinted car window and then at the sleeping child next to him. "I had the brat eating out of the palm of my hand until that explosion. If it wasn't for my quick thinking, she would have run back and we would have lost our best opportunity."

"How _did _you keep her from running off?" Avicenna asked, putting the car into drive and getting back on the road.

"I didn't really. I just made sure she wouldn't get anywhere while she ran. But as it stands now, it'll be hard to build any trust, and if she becomes too obstinate, all our plans are as useful as her," he nodded at Hope, "crayon scribbles would be." He turned to glare at the older woman's reflection in the rear-view mirror. "You know that without her, our entire mission is shot straight to Scheol." With a melodramatic sigh, Cero flopped back into the seat. "That _useless _woman! How can you seriously expect me to work with such incompetence!"

"Look at it this way: that's one less 'incompetent' in the Earth-sphere."

"Yes. Thank goodness for that. If only all the imbeciles in this world were as easily convinced to strap bombs to their bellies. That certainly would make life less frustrating." Avicenna hazarded a quick glance over her shoulder at their newly acquired tool. She frowned and turned her attention back to the road before responding to the problem at hand.

"Maybe if we keep her drugged she be more compliant. It worked with the others."

"Yeah, and look what happened to them." Cero twisted his head around to watch the fire trucks and EMT's pass them in the opposing lane. "No. We've got to keep her lucid."

"Whatever. We'll let Cos figure it out when we get back to the base." The methodic rhythm of a helicopter's rotors shook the car's chassis slightly as the aircraft passed over them, flying low. "Go to sleep – I'll wake you when we reach the shuttle."

4:43 PM, Local Time, Winner Estate

"Good god ..." Une whispered to herself, barely hearing her own voice over the deafening chop of the helicopter rotors. The southwest corner of the huge residence was obscured by thick black smoke, while the rest seemed enveloped by its own fog of pale, choking cement dust. The helicopter landed in the open field that was the Winner front yard and Une quickly climbed out, immediately reaching for her mobile phone and dialing rapidly as the helicopter took off again.

"Hello, Charles? This is Une. I need you to make a few calls for me. Got a notepad?" She covered the mouthpiece of the phone as a police officer headed toward her. "What's the situation?" she called out to him.

"Suicide bomber," he responded succinctly. "Drove a car loaded with liquid-explosives into the far corner of the building."

"Hold on one second," she said to the officer, returning her attention to her assistant on the phone. "Charles? Listen carefully. Call the president's office and tell them that there's been a bombing here on L4. We don't know who did it, we don't know who was targeted, we don't know who's alive and who's not. All I know right now is it was a suicide car bomber. Call the Winners and tell them the mansion on L4 A01 has been bombed. Also call Mrs. Darlian and tell her the same thing. Tell both parties _not_ to talk to the press about this yet. In about a half hour, call me again on this line and I'll dictate a press release. But before you do any of that, call the Manager of Weather Systems for A01 and tell him to turn off this damn snow. Got all that? Remember: half an hour."

Une hung up and dropped the phone back into her coat pocket and offered her hand to the police officer. "Sorry about that. I'm Lady Une of the Preventers."

"Yes, I know who you are." The two began walking toward the nearest police car. "Once the main fire is extinguished we'll be able to focus on rescue efforts. We've already sent a suit to the Colonial Records Office for a blueprint of the building. Do you know how many people are inside, Lady?"

She shook her head, trying to remember. "Maybe ... ten or twelve people? Mr. Winner sent home most of the house staff for the holidays."

"That's very helpful," he said, looking over the car hood at the crumpled building shrouded in concrete dust. Gesturing with his hands, he continued, "From here it looks like the first floor was reinforced in some way that has kept it from collapsing entirely. It seems highly likely there are pockets where survivors could be trapped. I'm more worried about anyone who might have been on the second floor, which appears to have collapsed totally."

Une nodded, easily following the officer's observations, having noted the same points. "I don't think the Preventers will have any trouble working with local authorities if all the officers are as well trained as you are."

"You've called in the Preventers? Isn't that a little premature?"

"It's strongly possible that this attack was the fulfillment of a threat issued a few weeks ago by an intraspherical terrorist organization. If that is the case, we need to get the Preventers up to speed as quickly as possible." Before Une could elaborate any further her phone began to ring. Quickly answering it, une was surprised to hear the police lieutenant on the other end.

"Lady Une, we have a spacecraft illegally departing the colony at a small, Earthside dock."

"What's the nearest Preventer craft to that dock?"

"According to the screen in front if me, it's Unit 087904."

"Good. Connect me to that ship." In a few heartbeats, her call was transferred to the communications lines of the Preventer ship in question. A familiar voice greeted her on the other end."

"This is Unit 087904, over."

"Captain Lanzarrote, this is Lady Une."

"What can we do for you, Lady?"

"Do you have a small spacecraft on screen exiting from an Earthside dock?" Une stared at the ground while she talked, trying to avoid looking at the ruined building a few hundred feet away.

"Not right now, Lady but we did not five minutes ago."

"Explain, Captain," she commanded, not in the mood for riddles.

"The vessel seems to have hyper-jamming capacities. I dropped off our screen right before you contacted us."

"Captain, if I remember correctly, your ship is outfitted with the new Canis Tracking System, is it not?"

"That it is, Lady."

"Then head toward the last known coordinates of that craft before it disappeared and see if you can pick up a scent. Any questions?"

"None, Lady."

"Good. You have your orders."

"Right. Unit 087904 out." Une turned off the phone and was about to drop it back in her pocket when she felt something nagging at the back of her mind. She looked up at the man still standing before her.

"Do you have any other questions to ask me, officer?"

He shook his head. "No, not right now. We'll alert you when the rescue team is ready to go in."

"That's fine. I just need to make a few more calls. Do you mind if I use this car while I'm on the phone?"

"Be my guest," he said, opening the driver's side door for her. She slipped into the driver's seat and he closed the door behind her, then began walking back to the crowd of firefighters trying to extinguish the main fire. Une watched his back as he walked away until she was sure he wasn't coming back.

Tossing her phone onto the passenger's seat, une leaned over the steering wheel and began to cry. She sobbed so forcefully, her body shook and her hands gripped the wheel with white knuckles.

"Oh God, what am I going to do?" She made a fist with one hand and hit the wheel as hard as she could, but her blow only bounced off. "Why? Why are you doing this to her? She didn't do anything to you! She's just a little girl!"


End file.
